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Show 380 . SEXUAL SELECTION: MAN. PAUT II. races having retained their beards fi·om primordial times, than in the case of the hair on the body; for with those Qnadrumana, in which the male has a large1~ board than that of the female, it is fully developed only at maturity, and the later stages of development may have been exclusively transmitted to mankind. We should then see what is actually the case, namely, our male children, before they arrive at maturity, as destitute of beards as are our female children. On the other hand the great variability of tho beard within the limits of the same race and in different races indicates that reversion has come into action. However this may be, we must not overlook tho part which sexual selection may have played evon duriug later times; for we know that with savages, the' men of the beardless nlCes take infinite pains in eradicating every hair from their faces, as something odious, whilst the men of the bearded races feel the greatest pride in their beards. The women, no doubt, participate in these feelings, and if so sexual selec6on can hardly have failed to have effected something iu the course of later times.23 It is rather difficult to form a judgment how the long 23 l'tir. Sproat ('Scenes and Studies of Savage I,ifo,' l 868, p. 25) t:mgg :sts, with reference to the beardless natives of Vancouver's Islanu. tbut tho custom of plucking out tho hairs on tho face, " continued from "one genr.ration to another, would perhaps at last prouuco a race " distinguishable by a thin and straggling growth of beard." But tho custom would not huvo ari:son until the beard had already become, from some independent cause, greatly reduced. Nor have we any direct evidence that lhe continued eradication of tho hair woulu lead to any inhc1 ited effect. Owing to this cause of doubt, I have not hitherto alluded to the belief held by some dbtinguished ethnologists, for inl:! fance M. Gosse of Geneva, that artificial modifications of tho skull tPnd to be inherited. I have no wish to dispute this conclusion; and we now know from Dr. Brown-S<=quard's remorkable observations, espcrinlly those recently communicated (1870) to the British Associotiou, that with guinea-pigs tho effects of operations arc inherited. CIIAP. XX. COLOUR OF SKIN. 381 hair on our heads became developed. Eschricht 24 stateR that in the human fcetus the hair on the face <luring tho fifth month is longer than that on the head ; and this indicates that our semi-human progenitors were not furnished with long tresses, which consequently must have been a late acquisition. This is likewise indicated ·by the extraordinary difference in the length ?f the hair :in the different races; in the negro the ha1r forms a mere curly mat; with us it is of great length, and with the American natives it not rarely reaches to the oTound. Some species of Semnopithecus have their heads covered with moderately long hair, and this proLably serves as an ornament and was acquired through sexual selection. The same view may be extended to mankind for we know that long tresses are now and were for~erly much admired, as may be observed in the works of almost every poet; St. Paul says, "if a woman ,, have long hair, it is a glory to her;" and we have seen that in North America a chief was elected solely from the length of his hair. Colour of the Skin.-The best kind of evidence that the colour of the skin has been modified through sexual selection is wanting in the case of mankind; for the sexes do not differ in this re pect, or only slightly and doubtful1y. On the other band we know fro~ ~any facts already given that the colour of the skm Is re( J'arded by the men of all races as a highly important ~lement in their Leauty; so that it is a character which would be likely to be modified through selection, as has occurred in innumerable instances with the lower animals. It seems at first sight a monstrous supposition that the jet blackness of the negro has been gained 24 'Ueber dio Richtung,' ibid. s. 40. |
