Page:The Last link.djvu/28

16 are restricted to the ear itself; their function is, or was, that of curling up or opening the external ear.

In connection with the ear, I may touch upon another interesting and most suggestive little feature which is present in many individuals—namely, 'Darwin's point.' This is the last remnant of the original tip of the ear, before the outer, upper, and hinder rim became doubled up or folded in. It is a feature quite useless, and absolutely impossible of interpretation, excepting as the vestige of such previous ancestral conditions as are normal in the monkeys.

In some cases the reduction of muscles has proceeded further in apes than in man—for example, the muscles of the little toe. Another instance is afforded by the coccyx or vestige of the tail; this is still furnished with muscles which are now in man, as well as in the apes, quite useless, and vary considerably with every sign of degeneration, most so in the orang-utan.