H. S. Stannus 
9 
have been seen. These consist of little subcutaneous nodules of cartilage forming 
tubercles one to four in number situated just in front of the tragus, the affection 
being usually bilateral. 
An abnormality seen affecting a woman in N. Nyasa consisted in the direct 
prolongation of the skin from the side of the head on to the outer surface of the 
pinna so that the upper margin of the ear was hidden, though easily felt beneath 
the skin. 
Helical fistula. Under this name have been described the remains of the first 
branchial cleft found as little pits on the helix. The condition is ceitainly rare 
in England and persons exhibiting the anomaly are sometimes shewn as interesting 
cases at medical societies. That heredity plays a part in its incidence is well 
known as illustrated by a case shewn by Dr Prichard at the Royal Society of 
Medicine, an infant with symmetrical helical fistulae, whose mother, four siblings, 
maternal grandmother and two great-aunts all exhibited the same defect. 
Having noted this same anomaly in quite a number of natives I became interested 
to ascertain the actual incidence. The statistics given below embody the results 
of my observations covering nearly 6500 individuals of all tribes. The popula- 
tions of whole villages were taken so that consecutive unselected persons were dealt 
with. 
Tribe 
Number 
examined 
Eight 
Left 
Both 
sides 
XT A ■ r Males 
N. Angom | p^^^^j^^ 
. , f Males . . . 
Achewa | _ 
. . ( Males 
[Females... 
Waiikonde* ... 
Awemba 
Anyanja 
Ahenga 
416 
612 
100 
136 
1941 
2576 
455 
48 
65 
142 
7 
13 
34 
69 
4 
1 
1 
3 
6 
8 
4 
3 
22 
53 
8 
1 
5 
3 
5 
1 
12 
23 
5 
1 
Totals 
6491 
132 
110 
50 
Tlius among 6491 individuals of all ages and both sexes a total of 292 were 
found to have helical fistula (4"5 °/^). It was more commonly unilateral, affecting 
the right side a little more often than the left, giving percentages of 2'08 and 1"69 
respectively and for bilateral cases 0"77 7o- Taking each sex we see that the 
proportions between the three numbers are almost the same. 
2457 males ... 41 32 16 
3324 females ... 82 64 28 
* These figures were kindly supplied by Dr Davey. 
Biometrika x 2 
