Darwin's interpretation of Woolner's case as having arisen through a
folding over of the free edge of a pointed ear has been fully borne
out by my investigations on the external ear.[90] In particular, it
was established by these investigations that the human foetus, about
the middle of its embryonic life, possesses a pointed ear somewhat
similar to that of the monkey genus Macacus. One of Darwin's
statements in regard to the head of the orang-foetus must be
corrected. A _large_ ear with a point is shown in the photograph,[91]
but it can easily be demonstrated--and Deniker has already pointed
this out--that the figure is not that of an orang foetus at all, for
that form has much smaller ears with no point; nor can it be a
gibbon-foetus, as Deniker supposes, for the gibbon ear is also without
a point. I myself regard it as that of a Macacus-embryo. But this
mistake, which is due to Nitsche, in no way affects the fact
recognised by Darwin, that ear-forms showing the point characteristic
of the animal ear occur in man with extraordinary frequency.
Finally, there is a discussion of those rudimentary structures which
occur only in _one_ sex, such as the rudimentary mammary glands in the
male, the vesicula prostatica, which corresponds to the uterus of the
female, and others. All these facts tell in favour of the common
descent of man and all other vertebrates. The conclusion of this
section is characteristic: "_It is only our natural prejudice, and
that arrogance which made our forefathers declare that they were
descended from demi-gods, which leads us to demur to this conclusion.
But the time will before long come, when it will be thought wonderful
that naturalists, who were well acquainted with the comparative
structure and development of man, and other mammals, should have
believed that each was the work of a separate act of creation._"[92]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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