14 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



which are regularly present in some of the lower animals, 

 can occasionally be detected in man in a greatly reduced con- 

 dition. Every one must have noticed the power which many 

 animals, especially horses, possess of moving or twitching 

 their skin ; and this is effected by the panniculus carnosus. 

 Eemnants of this muscle in an efficient state are found in 

 various parts of our bodies ; for instance, the muscle on the 

 forehead, by which the eyebrows are raised. The platysma 

 my aides, which is well developed on the neck, belongs to 

 this system. Prof. Turner, of Edinburgh, has occa- 

 sionally detected, as he informs me, muscular fasciculi in 

 five different situations, namely in the axillae, near the 

 scapulae, etc., all of which must be referred to the system 

 of the panniculus. He has also shown* that the musculus 

 sternalis or sternalis brutorum, which is not an extension 

 of the rectus abdominalis, but is closely allied to the pan- 

 niculus, occurred in the proportion of about three per cent, 

 in upwards of 600 bodies ; he adds, that this muscle affords 

 " an excellent illustration of the statement that occasional 

 and rudimentary structures are especially liable to variation 

 in arrangement." 



Some few persons have the power of contracting the 

 superficial muscles on their scalps ; and these muscles are 

 in a variable and partially rudimentary condition. M. A. 

 de Candolle has communicated to me a curious instance of 

 the long-continued persistence or inheritance of this power, 

 as well as of its unusual development. He knows a family, 

 in which one- member, the present head of the family, 

 could, when a youth, pitch several heavy books from his 

 head by the movement of the scalp alone ; and he won 

 wagers by performing this feat. His father, uncle, grand- 

 father, and his three children possess the same power to the 

 .same unusual degree. This family became divided eight 

 generations ago into two branches ; so that the head of the 

 above-mentioned branch is cousin in the seventh degree to 

 the head of the other branch. This distant cousin resides 

 in another part of France ; and on being asked whether 

 he possessed the same faculty, immediately exhibited his 

 power. This case offers a good illustration how persistent 

 may be the transmission of an absolutely useless faculty, 

 probably derived from our remote semi-human progenitors; 



*Prof. W Turner, " Proc. Royal Soc. Edinburgh," 1866-67, p. 65. 



