“There is no part of the body which varies so much as the human ear.“
Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of The Cardboard Box
Holmes, it seems from a recent BBC article, was right after all: the human ear provides an excellent way to identify people. It was hardly, therefore, an original idea when a scientist in the UK proposed that the unique pattern inside each individual’s ear could be used as a biometric identifier, in the same way fingerprints are used.
All I can say is, quite expectedy, that it may be time for us all to get those Spock ears out to avoid government spying.
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“Imagine my surprise, then, when on looking at Miss Cushing I perceived that her ear corresponded exactly with the female ear which I had just inspected. The matter was entirely beyond coincidence. There was the same shortening of the pinna, the same broad curve of the upper lobe, the same convolution of the inner cartilage. In all essentials it was the same ear.”
Full text of The Cardboard Box available here.
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Posted by doig 
I have often seen reminiscences of people I have never even heard of, and I fail to see -- because I do not happen to be a 'Somebody' -- why my blog should not be interesting. My only regret is that I did not commence it when I was a youth.
