22 



TnE DESCENT OF MAN. 



[Part I. 



Fig. 2.— Human Ear, modelled 



and drawn by Mr. Woolner. 



a. The projecting point. 



ing. (Fig. 2.) Those points not only project inward, but 

 often a little outward, so that they are visible when the 

 head is viewed from directly in front or behind. They are 

 variable in size and somewhat in po- 

 sition, standing either a little high- 

 er or lower ; and they sometimes 

 occur in one ear and not on the 

 other. Now the meaning of these 

 projections is not, I think, doubt- 

 ful ; but it may be thought that 

 they offer too trifling a character 

 to be worth notice. This thought, 

 however, is as false as it is natural. 

 Every character, however slight, 

 must be the result of some definite 

 cause ; and if it occurs in many 

 individuals deserves consideration. 

 The helix obviously consists of the extreme margin of the 

 ear folded inward ; and this folding appears to be in some 

 manner connected with the whole external ear, being per- 

 manently pressed backward. In many monkeys, which 

 do not stand high in the order, as baboons and some 

 species of macacus," the upper portion of the ear is 

 slightly pointed, and the margin is not at all folded in- 

 ward ; but if the margin were to be thus folded, a slight 

 point would necessarily project inward and probably a 

 little outward. This could actually be observed in a 

 specimen of the Ateles heelzebuth in the Zoological Gar- 

 dens ; and we may safely conclude that it is a similar 

 structure — a vestige of formerly-pointed ears — which oc- 

 casionally reappears in man. 



The nictitating membrane, or third eyelid, with its 



"^ See also some remarks, and the drawings of the ears of the Lemu- 

 roidea, in Messrs. Murie and Mivart's excellent paper in ' Transact. Zoo- 

 log. Soc.' vol. vii. 1869, pp. G and 90. 



