84 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



ward; but if tlie margin were to be thus folded, a slight 

 point would necessarily project inward toward the centre, 

 and probably a little outward from the plane of the ear: and 

 this I believe to be their origin in many cases. On the other 

 hand, Prof. L. Meyer, in an able paper recently published,^' 

 maintains that the whole case is one of mere variability ; and 

 that the projections are not real ones, but are due to the in- 

 ternal cartilage on each side of the points not having been 

 fully developed. I am quite ready to admit that this is the 

 correct explanation in many instances, as in those figured 

 by Prof. Meyer, in which there are several minute points, or 

 the whole margin is sinuous. I have myself seen, through 

 the kindness of Dr. L. Down, the ear of a microcephalous 

 idiot, on which there is a projection on the outside of the 

 helix, and not on the inward folded edge, so that this point 

 can have no relation to a former apex of the ear. Never- 

 theless, in some cases, my original view, that the points are 

 vestiges of the tips of formerly erect and pointed ears, still 

 seems to me probable. I think so from the frequency of 

 their occurrence, and from the general correspondence in 

 position with that of the tip of a pointed ear. In one case, 

 of which a photograph has been sent me, the projection is 

 so large, that supposing, in accordance with Prof. Meyer's 

 viow, the ear to be made perfect by the equal development 

 of the cartilage throughout the whole extent of the margin, 

 it would have covered fully one- third of the whole ear. Two 

 cases have been communicated to me — one in Korth America, 

 and the other in England — in which the upper margin is not 

 at all folded inward, but is pointed, so that it closely resem- 

 bles the pointed ear of an ordinary quadruped in outline. 

 In one of these cases, which was that of a young child, the 

 father compared the ear with the drawing which I have 

 given" of the ear of a monkey, the Gynopithecus niger, and 

 says that, their outlines are closely similar. If, in these two 



33 Ueber das Darwin'ache Spitzohr, Archiv fvir Path. Anat. und Pliys., 

 isn, p. 485. 



" "The Expresaion of the Emotions," p. 136. 



