20 
THE DESCENT OF MAN. 
Part I. 
curred in the proportion of about 3 per cent, in upwards 
of 600 bodies : he adds, that this muscle affords “ an 
“ excellent illustration of the statement that occasional 
“ and rudimentary structures are especially liable to 
“ variation in arrangement.” 
Some few persons have the power of contracting the 
superficial muscles on their scalps ; and these muscles 
are in a variable and partially rudimentary condition. 
M. A.j de Candolle has communicated to me a curious 
instance of the long-continued persistence or inheritance 
of this power, as well as of its unusual development. 
He knows a family, in which one member, the present 
head of a family, could, when a youth, pitch several 
heavy books from his head by the movement of the 
scalp alone ; and he won wagers by performing this feat. 
His father, uncle, grandfather, and all his three chil- 
dren possess the same power to the same unusual degree. 
This family became divided eight generations ago into 
two branches ; so that the head of the above-mentioned 
branch is cousin in the seventh degree to the head of 
the other branch. This distant cousin resides in another 
part of France, and on being asked whether he possessed 
the same faculty, immediately exhibited his power. 
This case offers a good illustration how persistently an 
absolutely useless faculty may be transmitted. 
The extrinsic muscles which serve to move the whole 
external ear, and the intrinsic muscles which move the 
different parts, all of which belong to the system of the 
panniculus, are in a rudimentary condition in man ; they 
are also variable in development, or at least in function. 
I have seen one man who could draw his ears for- 
wards, and another who could draw them backwards; 23 
23 Canestrini quotes Hyrt. (’ Annua rio clella Soc. dei Naturalistic 
Moiena. 1867, p. 97) to the same effect. 
