1897.] 



OF HAIB TTPON THE HTTMAN EAB, 



299 



born child. He was of a dark complexion and hirsute ; the edges o£ 

 his little ears were fringed with black hairs showing conspicuously 

 upon the delicate skin of infancy. 



The direction, or set, of these hairs surprised me. Instead of 

 radiating from the margin of the ear like the cogs of a wheel, or 

 overlapping one another around its edge like the teeth of a 

 ratchet, two streams of hairs approached each other from almost 

 opposite directions until their points crossed and interlaced 

 (see Plate XX. figs. 9, 10, 18, &c.). 



Normal Human Ear. 



a a, helix ; b, anti-helix ; c, concha ; d, Darwin's point , e, spina helicis ; 



/, lobe. 



The part of the helix at which the points of the hairs met was 

 that part of the infolded outer rim which is normally somewhat 

 thickened and where a little white nodule is frequently present, 

 the nodule which in later life commonly develops into Darwin's 

 Point. I communicated my discovery to Mr. Darwin and 

 received from him the following letters, now, by permission of his 

 son Mr. Francis Darwin, published for the first time : — 



March 22nd, 1881. 



I. 



Down, 

 Beckenham, Kent. 

 Mr. S. M. Wallis. 

 Dear Sib, 



I am very much obliged for yoiu' coiirteous and kind note. The 

 fact which you communicate is quite new to me, and as I was 



20* 



