RECORD: Darwin, C. R. n.d. Abstract of Wood, On a group of varieties of the muscles of the human neck, etc. CUL-DAR87.125. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and edited by John van Wyhe 3.2022. RN1

NOTE: See record in the Darwin Online manuscript catalogue, enter its Identifier here. Reproduced with permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and William Huxley Darwin. The volumes CUL-DAR 87-90 contain material for Darwin's book Descent of man 2d ed. (1874-1877).

Darwin cited this in Descent 2d ed., p. 43, n54: "Since the first edition of this book appeared, Mr. Wood has published another memoir in the 'Phil. Transactions,' 1870, p. 83, on the varieties of the muscles of the human neck, shoulder, and chest. He here shews how extremely variable these muscles are, and how often and how closely the variations resemble the normal muscles of the lower animals. He sums up by remarking, "It will be enough for my purpose if I have succeeded in shewing the more important forms which, when occurring as varieties in the human subject, tend to exhibit in a sufficiently marked manner what may be considered as proofs and examples of the Darwinian principle of reversion, or law of inheritance, in this department of anatomical science.""

John Wood. 1870. On a group of varieties of the muscles of the human neck, shoulder, and chest, with their transitional forms and homologies in the mammalia. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London 160 (31 December): 83-116.

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Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

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