1 38 E VOL UTION AND DISEASE. 



vary in size ; sometimes they are no larger than split 

 peas, in other cases cover several square inches, and in ex- 

 ceptional cases nearly the whole of the trunk may be thus 

 covered ; the hair may even equal in length that growing 

 on the child's head. Several instances of hairy men of 

 this sort have been known, and an illustrative case is 

 shown in fig. 76. The original drawing is preserved in 



FIG. 76. Trunk of a Man with a large hairy mole. (After 

 Lawson.) 



the museum of Middlesex Hospital. The biblical Esau 

 was probably a man of this character. These are 

 examples of reversion, the lanugo instead of being shed 

 attains full development : we need only descend to those 

 mammals most closely allied to man, and in his own 

 order Primates, to find the true significance of the 

 phenomenon. 



