Use-inheritance illustrated by the direction of hair on the bodies of animals / by Walter Kidd.

Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Use-inheritance illustrated by the direction of hair on the bodies of animals / by Walter Kidd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    THE FOEMATION OF WHORLS IN THE HAIRY COATS OF MAMMALS It is a matter of some interest, and perhaps of importance from the present point of view, to ascertain the origin of those radiating whorls which are seen very generally in the hairy coats of Mammals. They occur with great frequency and variety in this group of animals, and in certain regions of the human body, and appear only to he entirely absent in a few aquatic animals, such as heavers and seals, and in certain rodents. A whorl consists of a group of hairs which, from some anatomical or dynamical reason, radiate from a central point, and merge into the adjoining streams of hair in various ways. Whorls are always found opposing a stream of hair, and stand out from the general neighbouring stream so promi- nently and so variously in similar forms of animals as to suggest that something more than anatomical arrangement of the part involved is at work in producing them. They are most common in short-haired forms, being either absent or very rudimentary in those with long hair. Associated with whorls are two other characters which are more or less frequent, and which must he considered with them. The whorl is very usually the starting-point of a feather-shaped arrangement of the hair in the opposing stream, and this