THE HUMAN FACE 203 



and behind the jaw would naturally retain the hair longer, 

 as other recesses on the body do. Perhaps the eyebrows 

 and moustache are derived from the bunches of tactile 

 hairs so often found in other animals above the eyes and 

 the mouth. It might have been expected that the scalp, 

 being prominent and exposed, would have become bare 

 very early, but it has turned out otherwise, perhaps 

 because the women did not like a bald crown. 



Three points distinctive of the human face are the 

 prominent nose, the prominent chin, and the hanging lobe 

 of the ear. Hardly any ape or quadruped possesses one 

 of them. I can only recollect three monkeys which have 

 prominent noses. I do not think that we can give any 

 physiological reason why man should have a prominent 

 nose ; certainly it does not indicate unusually keen scent, 

 nor is the olfactory surface either so large or so sensitive 

 as in many animals which have the nose blended with the 

 upper jaw to form a snout. The Siamang Gibbon is the 

 only ape which has even the rudiment of a chin. The 

 hanging lobe of the ear is totally deficient in all animals 

 except man and the gorilla ; and in the gorilla it is very 

 slightly developed. 



Examine next the eye and its appendages. At the 

 inner angle, next to the nose, is a red, wart -like fold, 

 which exactly agrees in position with the third eyelid of 

 many lower animals (nearly all quadrupeds, birds, higher 

 reptiles). When fully developed, it can be drawn across 

 the eyeball, and employed to cleanse it from dust. Ani- 

 mals which possess a third eyelid wink with it, and not 

 with the upper eyelid, as we do. One proof that the eye- 

 wart of man is really a vestige of the third eyelid has been 

 furnished by careful dissection. Every functional third 

 eyelid is supported by a thin cartilage, which forms the 

 bulk of its substance. Now Giacomini has proved that 

 in man, and more frequently in negroes than in Europeans, 

 this cartilage is often retained. He found it to be present 

 in twelve out of sixteen negroes whom he examined. 



