462 PROF. B. C. A. WINDLE ON TEEA.TOLOGICAL EYIDENCE 



has committed himself to the statement that they are due to the 

 action of the amnion. "Am wahrscheinlichsten ist mir die 

 Moglichkeit, dass durch den Druck des Amnions Theile ahgetrennt 

 und am Amnion haftend auf der Korper Oberflache transplantirt 

 werden." The author just quoted is, I am convinced, mistaken 

 in pushing his views as to the malformation-producing capacities 

 of the amnion so far as this. There can be little doubt that the 

 malformation is atavistic. The English edition of Wiedersheim's 

 ' Comparative Anatomy ' * contains the follovs^ing statement on 

 the subject : — " The occasional existence in men of supernumerary 

 teats and in women of supernumerary teats and mammae (poly- 

 thelism and polymastism) is very remarkable. They are usually 

 situated iu the thoracic region, and must be considered as an 

 atavism to a characteristic primitive form which possessed nume- 

 rous teats, and which produced a number of young at a birth. 

 Such a transition from polymastism to bimastism may be seen 

 plainly at the present day in the Lemurs ; in them the inguinal 

 and abdominal teats are undergoing a retrogressive metamor- 

 phosis, while a single pair of thoracic teats remain well deve- 

 loped. [In Hapcdemur griseus the single pair of teats is situated 

 on the arm (Beddard).'] This accords with the fact that most 

 Lemurs bear only a ^oair of young ones at a time, which they 

 carry with them at the breast." In this connection it is inter- 

 esting to note that, as Dr. Charapneys has shown t, the skin of 

 pregnant women may take on mammary functions in isolated 

 spots, lumps forming in various places, notably in the axilla, 

 from which come {a) granular debris like the secretion of 

 sebaceous follicles ; (b) colustrum ; (c) milk, expressed from the 

 situation of the sebaceous follicles, as marked by the position of 

 the hairs. These cases show, he says, " that in lying-in women 

 the sebaceous follicles of the skin are capable of producing true 

 mammary secretion. The transition from granular material, 

 through colustrum, to true milk is unmistakable." The obser- 

 vations confirm the opinion that the breast is a highly specialized 

 aggregation of highly specialized sebaceous follicles. 



The facts which have just been reviewed leave little room for 

 doubt that accessory mammge are atavistic and blastogenic. 



Syjjertrichosis. — Excessive hairiness, which appears to be 

 usually associated with deficient dentition, is an occasionally 



* P. 28. t Roy. Med. & Cliir. Soc, April 27, 188G. 



