134 HEREDITY AND EUGENICS 



to their ears, the male children and grandchildren 

 being normal. The rudimentary lobules probably 

 represent the heterozygous condition, but there is not 

 sufficient evidence of sex-linkage. Sedgwick (1863, 

 p. 457) describes a line of descent in three generations 

 with rudimentary ear-lobes adherent to the head. 

 The condition appears to have occurred onl}^ in the 

 women. It was present in the grandmother, in two 

 of her daughters, the third not being examined, and 

 one of the two sons examined being normal. One of 

 the daughters who had the peculiarity transmitted 

 it to her two daughters, the son being normal. No 

 doubt many other ear peculiarities are inherited. 

 The Kalmucks are said to have large and unsightly 

 ears as a racial character. 



Lynch (1921) describes a mutation in the house- 

 mouse, in which the ears are about half the normal 

 length and somewhat narrower. They also differ 

 somewhat from the normal in outline, and are held 

 close to the head. The character behaves as a simple 

 Mendelian recessive. 



Ritzman (1921) has found that short, thick ears 

 in a breed of sheep is a heterozygous condition, giving 

 equal numbers of both types of offspring in crosses 

 with the normal (sixteen short ear: sixteen long ear). 

 The mating together of short-eared individuals has 

 produced an earless ram, which therefore clearly 

 represents the pure recessive condition. Similar 

 results have been independently obtained by Wriedt 

 (191 9, 1 921), who adds that an earless ram mated 

 with normal sheep gave five offspring with short ears, 

 while an earless sheep mated with a normal ram pro- 

 duced one lamb with short ears. Earless individuals 

 mated together gave earless offspring. Short ears 

 in sheep were said to be very common formerl}^ in 

 Norway, and are still found in various parts of the 

 country. There is evidence that both the short-eared 



