5 6 E VOL UTION AND DISEASE. 



distort this into a tail. The tumour was removed in 

 Central Africa and sent to Professor Virchow. 1 The 

 pendulous mass consists of a hollow central cavity sur- 

 rounded by fat and covered externally by skin, and in 

 Virchow's opinion it arose as a diverticulum from the 

 membranes of the spinal cord (spina bifida). 



The most interesting false tails are those formed of 

 tufts of hair. It was mentioned in the last chapter that 

 certain malformations of the spinal column are associ- 

 ated with hair-fields and long tufts of hair in the loin. 

 Sometimes, as in the example on page 23, the hairs are 

 several inches long, recalling the goat-like tuft of hair 

 or tail which sculptors represent in the loins of satyrs 

 (fauns and a^gipans). In fauns the tail strongly re- 

 sembles the tuft of hair seen in some human beings. 

 For instance, compare the back of the faun in fig. 27 

 and that of the child, fig. 12. 



Virchow, in writing on this subject, points out the 

 possibility that sculptors and artists in representing 

 these mythical satyrs and "gods of the wood" with 

 tufts of hair for tails, did not trust entirely to the 

 imagination, but that such oddities had a certain 

 amount of foundation in fact. There is much to sup- 

 port this view. Those sylvan deities, the aegipans, had 

 a man's head and body, pointed ears, and the hind- 

 quarters of a goat. In some forms of local hairiness 

 due to spinal defect, the hair extends over the legs and 

 buttocks as in the aegipans. The cloven hoof admits 

 of a two-fold explanation. In the first place, malposi- 

 tion of the foot is a frequent complication of congenital 

 1 Virchow's Arch. Bd., ci. S. 57 U 



