158 READINGS IN EVOLUTION, GENETICS, AND EUGENICS 



this refined distinction does not hold. On the one hand, the com- 

 paratively hairless chimpanzee which died last year in the Zoological 

 Gardens (T. calms) was remarkably denuded over the back; and, on 

 the other hand, men who present a considerable development of hair 

 over the rest of their bodies present it also on their backs and shoul- 

 ders. Again, in all men the rudimentary hair on the upper and lower 

 arm is directed towards the elbow a peculiarity which occurs nowhere 

 else in the animal kingdom, with the exception of the anthropoid apes 

 and a few American monkeys, where it presumably has to do with 

 arboreal habits. For, when sitting in trees, the orang, as observed by 

 Mr. Wallace, places its hands above its head with its elbows pointing 

 downwards; the disposition of hair on the arms and fore-arms then 

 has the effect of thatch in turning the rain. Again, I find that in all 

 species of apes, monkeys, and baboons which I have examined (and 

 they have been numerous), the hair on the backs of the hands and feet 

 is continued as far as the first row of phalanges; but becomes scanty, 

 or disappears altogether, on the second row; while it is invariably 

 absent on the terminal row. I also find that the same peculiarity 

 occurs in man. We all have rudimentary hair on the first row of 

 phalanges, both of hands and feet: when present at all, it is more 

 scanty on the second row; and in no case have I been able to find any 

 on the terminal row. In all cases these peculiarities are congenital, 

 and the total absence or partial presence of hair on the second pha- 

 langes is constant in different species of Quadrumana. For instance, 

 it is entirely absent in all the chimpanzees, which I have examined, 

 while scantily present in all the orangs. As in man, it occurs in a 

 patch midway between the joints. 



Besides showing these two features with regard to disposition of hair 

 on the human arm and hand, the woodcut on page 159 (Fig. 32) illustrates 

 a third. By looking closely at the arm of the very hairy man from whom 

 the drawing was taken, it could be seen that there was a strong tendency 

 towards a whorled arrangement of the hairs on the backs of the wrists. 

 This is likewise, as a general rule, a marked feature in the arrangement 

 of hair on the same places in the gorilla, orang, and chimpanzee. In 

 the specimen of the latter, however, from which the drawing was taken 

 this characteristic was not well marked. The downward direction of 

 the hair on the backs of the hands is exactly the same in man as it is 

 in all the anthropoid apes. Again, with regard to hair, Darwin 

 notices that occasionally there appears in man a few hairs in the eye- 

 brows much longer than the others; and that they seem to be 



