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Show 2·1 TilE DESCENT OF l\1:AN. PAnT I-. carnivora, in finding their prey; to others, as the wild boar, for both purposes combined. But the sense of smell is of extremely slight service, if any, even to savages, in whom it is generally more highly developed than in the civilised races. It does not warn them of danger, nor guide them to their food; nor does it prevent the Esquimaux from sleeping in the most fetid atmosphere, nor many savages from eating half-putrid meat. Those who believe in the principle of gradna1 evolution, will not readily admit that this sense in its present state was originally acquired by man, as be now exists. No doubt he inherits the power in m~ enfeebled and so far rudimentary condition, from some early progenitor, to whom it was highly serviceable and by whom it was continually used. "\V e can thus perhaps understand how it is, as Dr. Maudsley has truly remarked,2i that the sense of smell in man " is singu" larly effective in recalling vividly the ideas and images "of forgotten scenes and places ;" for we see in those animals, which have this sense highly developed, such as dogs and horses, that old recollections of persons and places are strongly associated with their odonr. Man differs conspicuously from all the other Primates in being almost naked. But a few short straggling hairs are found over the greater part of tho body in the male sex, and fine down on that of the female sex. In individuals belonging to the same race these hairs are highly Yariable, not only in abundance, but likewise in position : thus the shoulders in some Europeans are quite naked, whilst in others thev bear thick tufts of hair.28 There can be little donbt that the hairs 27 ''fhe Physiology n.nd Pathology of Mind,' 2nd edit. 1868, p. liH. 28 Eschricht, Ueber die Rich tung der Haare om menschlichen Kurp er 'Miiller s Archiv fiir Anat. uncl Phys.' 1837, s. 47. I shoJI often haveto refer to this very curious paper. Clf.~P I. RUDIMENTS. 25 thus scattered over the body are the rudiments of the uniform h!\iry coat of the lower animals. This view is rendered all the more probable, as it is known that fine, short, and pale-coloured hairs on the limbs and other parts of the body occasionally become developed into " thickset, long, and rather coarse dark hairs," when abnormally nourished near old-standing inflamed surfaces.29 I am informed by Mr. Paget that persons belonging to the same family often have a few hairs in their eyeLrows much longer than the others; so that this slight peculiarity seems to be inherited. These hairs apparently represent the vibrissre, which are used as organg of touch by many of the lower animals. In a young chimpanzee I observed that a few upright, rather long, hairs, projected above the eyes, where the true eyebrows,. if present., would have stood. The fine "·ool-like hair, or so-called lanugo, with which the human fretus during the sixth month is thickly covered, off~rs a more curious case. It is first developed, dur·ing the fifth month, on the eyebrows and face, and especially round the mouth, where it is much longer than that on the head. A moustache of this kind was observed by Escbricht 30 on a female fretus; but this is not su surprising a circumstance as it may at first apl1ear, for the two sexes generally resemble each other in all external characters during an early period of growth. The direetion and arrangement of the hairs on all parts of the fretal body are the same as in the adult, but are subject to much variability. The whole surface, including even the forehead and ear:3, is thus thickly clothed; but it. is a significant fact that the palms of the hands and 2n Paget, ' Lectures on Surgical Pathology,' 1853, vol. i. p. 'il. 30 Eschricht, ibid. s. 40, 47. |