1897.] OF HA.IE TTPON THE HUMAN EAB. 301 



From the terms of the foregoing it may be assumed that 

 Mr. Darwin recognized the significauce of this discovery and was 

 conscious of the hiatus in the structure of his theory into which 

 tliis Httle fragment of corroborative fact could be iitted. 



Beyond their scientific interest these letters have an ethical 

 value of their own, revealing the generous courfcesy to a stranger 

 and theplasti receptivity of mind in extreme old age that we must 

 ever associate with the greatest intellect among the moderns. 



Thus encouraged by Mr. Darwin I have for the past sixteen 

 years observed the ears of infants and induced others to do so. 



My attention was drawn to an interesting paper, published by 

 an Italian, Gr. Chiarugi\ about ten years ago (catalogued in 

 Bugland in 1889), but which has received so little attention, 

 either here or on the Continent, that Wiedersheim ' does not allude 

 to the subject. 



Signor Chiarugi's paper is a three-page pamphlet of which only 

 the concluding forty-five lines relate to the subject under discus- 

 sion. 



The following is a free translation : — 



" It is not then because good reasons are wanting [to support 

 Darwin's view of the ori'jin of the "point." — H. M. W.'] that I 

 have decided to indicate a new character which attests the signifi- 

 cance attributed by Darwin to the tubercle of the helix, but 

 because the fact is such that it might by itself indeed cut short all 

 discussion. 



" The external ear (padiglione) is provided with rudimentary 

 hairs, which in the adult are very fine and pale and which creep 

 sometimes into the hollow of the auditory cavity, which claim 

 no attention at all ; but in the foetus and in the baby at birth, and 

 for a certain time after, they are fairly long, numerous, and 

 frequently pigmented. 



"Their direction differs in different parts of the external 

 ear. On the outer surface they have in general an ascending 

 direction, somewhat varied here and there by the varying 

 curvatures of the ear. 



"They preserve such a direction near the outside margin, 

 upon wliich along the first third [of its length. — //. M. TK] starting 

 from the front (upper margin) they turn their points downwards ; 

 along the other two-thirds (hinder margin) they turn their points 

 dii'ectly upwards. 



" Upon the internal surface ^ of the outer ear (padiglione) 

 the hairs ('peli), continuing the direction of the hairs {capelli) 

 growing upon the adjacent hairy scalp, incline downwards, Tou 



^ " II Tubercolo di Darwin e la Direzione del Peli nel Padiglione dell' Orecchio 

 umano." Estratto dal Bollettino della Sezione dei Cultori delle Scienze 

 mediche nella R. Unirersita dei Fisiocritici di Siena : Anno vi. fasc. ii. 

 (1889?). 



^ ' Structure of Man,' Wiedersheim. Macmillan, 1895. 



' The context shows that Signor Chiarugi means the back of the ear, i. e., the 

 surface next the head. — H. M. W. 



