42 HOMO V. DARWIX. 



for instance, on the forehead, by which the eyebrows are 

 raised . . 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 a 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." (Vol. i. pp. 17-20.) 



Homo. I question, my Lord, whether Mr. Darwin could 

 produce any one of the lower animals capable of performing 

 this feat. I know there are horses that can win wagers by 

 racing, but I never yet heard of one that could do so by pitch- 

 ing heavy books from his head by the movement of the 

 scalp alone. No animal can do this. It is idle therefore 

 to refer to the case Mr. Darwin has adduced, as an ins'ance 

 of rudimentary structure. As to man's power of raising 

 his eyebrows and wrinkling his forehead, it is part of 

 the " power of face" with which his Maker has endued 

 him. But there is a great difference between a horse 

 twitching his skin, when tickled or stung by a fly, and a 

 naturalist raising his eyt brows when he thinks he hus 

 detected some fresh rudimentary structure in man which 

 will justify his classing him with the lower animals. Per- 

 haps Mr. Darwin will tell us how it happens that a man 

 can express high intelligence, deep thought, loving sym- 

 pathy, by the movements of the muscles of his face alone, 

 while a horse cannot eirress them by twitching his skin all 

 his body over. 



Lanrin. My Lord, *' Professor Turner, of Edinburgh, has 

 informed me that he las occasionally detected nuibcular 



