682 DR. WALTER KIDD ON THE [June lf>, 



axis of the body than those animals with pointed snouts. To 

 such a rule there must be many exceptions, but a rule it is. 



The fore-end of animals is necessarily subjected to numerous 

 forces in the course of their wild life, and it seems a fair inference 

 to draw, that the differences of " set " of hair on this prominent 

 region are determined by different factors, such as the prevailing 

 attitude of the head, habits, and environments. The hair-slope 

 must break or " part " somewhere in the frontal or nasal region, 

 and it may need but little in the way of difference in the angle of 

 incidence of wind, tropical rain, pressure against undergrowth, 

 burrowing in the ground, rooting in swamps or marshy ground, 

 and, finally, method of cleaning the fur, to determine that point at 

 which a whorl shall be established, and inherited in the course of 

 many generations. These are no more than suggestions to account 

 for some singular divergences in a very insignificant character, 

 which have come about by some means or other, and they agree, 

 in their way, with the suggested reason for the peculiar hair- 

 slope on the extensor surface of the forearm of Man, certain 

 Monkeys, and Carnivores. 



There is some support for this view in the striking whorl with 

 divergence of colour, so generally seen over the tuberosities of 

 the ischia of short-haired Dogs, and the bare spots and callosities 

 on the corresponding parts of many Monkeys, for both of these 

 forms of animals are notoriously fond of sitting on their haunches. 

 Another "abnormality " of set of hair for which one can see no 

 explanation, is that strange slope towards the cephalic end, which 

 is seen on the middle line of the dorsal region of some Antelopes. 

 This may even start from a whorl over the sacral region, and 

 pass thence right up to the horns, as in Oryx beisa, or from a 

 whorl in the mid-dorsal region, as in Cohus ellipaiprymnue. In 

 cases such as these, it may be that a fuller knowledge of the 

 habits of such animals would provide a reason for so strange a 

 departure. 



Appendix. 



1 have ventured to make a short addition to this paper containing 

 some notes illustrated by two diagrams, which, I think, lead to 

 similar conclusions. They represent three regions of the domes- 

 ticated Horse, an animal especially useful for investigation on 

 account of the great numbers of individuals open to our inspection, 

 and because it is an animal whose business in life is to walk, trot, 

 canter, or gallop, and since it has been domesticated by man it 

 has probably led, more than any other animal, a locomotive life. 

 Three regions of the Horse's body are illustrated : — 

 A. Inguinal. — Here is exhibited the well-known whorl from 

 which a " feathering " starts, at the edge of the skin-fold of this 

 region, opposite to the level of the patella, extending up the 

 hollow of the flank, with a feather-shaped arrangement of the hair, 

 to the level of the crest of the ilium, where it terminates, sharply 



