90 THE SCAFFOLDING LEFT IN THE BODY. 



rence of neck-ears in goats is no more than one would 

 expect. Indeed, one would look for them not only in 

 goats and in Man, but in all the Mammalia, for so far 

 as their bodies are concerned all the higher animals are 

 near relations. Observations on vestigial structures 

 in animals are sadly wanting ; but these cervical ears 

 are also certainly found in the horse, pig, sheep, and 

 others. 



That the human ear was not always the squat and 

 degenerate instrument it is at present may be seen by 

 a critical glance at its structure. Mr. Darwin records 

 how a celebrated sculptor called his attention to a lit- 

 tle peculiarity in the external ear, which he had often 

 noticed both in men and women. " The peculiarity 

 consists in a little blunt point, projecting from the 

 inwardly folded margin or helix. When present, it is 

 developed at birth, and, according to Professor Ludwig 

 Meyer, more frequently in man than in woman. The 

 helix obviously consists of the extreme margin of the 

 ear folded inwards ; and the folding appears to be in 

 some manner connected with the whole external ear 

 being permanently pressed backwards. In many 

 monkeys who do not stand high in the order, as 

 baboons and some species of macacus, the upper por- 

 tion of the ear is slightly pointed, and the margin 

 is not at all folded inwards ; but if the margin were to 

 be thus folded, a slight point would necessarily project 

 towards the centre." ^ Here, then, in this discovery of 

 the lost tip of the ancestral ear, is further and visible 

 advertisement of Man's Descent, a surviving symbol of 

 the stirring times and dangerous days of his animal 



1 Descent of Man, p. 15. 



