i86o— 1882] I ) I-: S ■ I ■: NT OF M A \ 39 



is nothing in the notion. [ have included the down on the Letter 408 



human body and the lanugo on the foetus as a rudimentary 



representation of a hairy coat. 1 - I do not know whether there 



is any direct functional connection between the presence of 



hair and the panniculus ear: osus J (to put the question u 



another point of view, is it the primary or aboriginal function 



of the panniculus to move the dermal appendages or the 



skin itself?) ; but both are superficial, and would perl 



together become rudimentary. I was led to think of this 



by the places (as far as my ignorance of anatomy has allowed 



me to judge) of the rudimentary muscular fasciculi which you 



specif)'. Now, some persons can move the skin of their hairy 



heads ; and is this not effected by the panniculus ? How is 



it with the eyebrows? You specify the axillae and the front 



region of the chest and lower part of scapula- : now, these are 



all hur\- spot- in man. On the other hand, the neck, and as 



I suppose the covering of the gluteus medius, are not hairy; 



so, as I said, 1 presume there is nothing in this notion. If 



there were, the rudiments of the panniculus ought perhaps to 



occur more plainly in man than in woman. . . . 



P.S — If the skin on the head is moved by the panniculus, 

 I think I ought just to allude to it, as some men alone having 

 power to move the skin shows that the apparatus is generally 

 rudimentary. 



In March 1869 Darwin wrote to Mr. Wallace : " I shall be intensely 

 curious to read the Quarterly. I hope you have not murdered too 

 completely your own and my child." The reference is to Mr. Wallace's 

 review, in the April number of the Quarterly, of LyelTs Principles of 

 Geology (tenth edition), and of the sixth edition of the Elements of 



ology. Mr. Wallace points out that here for the first time Sir l 

 Lyell gave up his opposition to evolution ; and this leads Mr. Wallace 

 to give a short account of the views set forth in the On) 

 In this article Mr. Wallace makes a definite statement as to his views 

 on the evolution of man, which were opposed to those ot Mr. Darwin. 

 He upholds the view that the brain of man. as well as the organs of 

 speech, the hand and the external form, could not have been evolved by 

 Natural Selection (the child he is supposed to murder). At p. 391 he 



1 Descent of Man I., p. 25 ; II., p. 375. 



* Professor Macalister draws our attention to the fact that Mr. 

 Darwin uses the term panniculus in the generalised sense of any 



sheet of muscle acting on the skin. 



