BABIES AND MONKEYS. 383 



deadly poisonous snakes. The terror tliey inspired was so great 

 that there can be no wonder at its survival in the human female 

 of to-day. 



Another habit, a relic of what was indulged in for a definite 

 beneficial purpose, remains to the present day namely, the fond- 

 ness of children for rolling. It points to the time when our an- 

 cestors possessed hairy bodies tenanted by colonies of parasites, 

 and is another example of parasite irritation shaping animals' 

 habits, alluded to above. These hairy bodies were the homes of 

 many parasites, among which the parents of Pulex irritans and 

 many another Pulex, together with other kinds which need not 

 be specified, were very much in evidence ; and then our ances- 

 tors, owing to less perfect articulation of joints, or to less perfec- 

 tion in development of the limbs, or to the thick covering of hair, 

 were unable to reach the source of trouble effectively, and could, 

 like horses or donkeys, only alleviate the irritation by rolling. 

 Scratching of the head as a nervous habit, from the association 

 between nervous irritation and actual irritation by parasites, 

 which must also be transmitted to the brain by the nerves, is a 

 relic of similar ancestral parasitically infested animals. It per- 

 sists now among human beings who are doubtless above suspi- 

 cion in the matter of unwelcome tenants ; and it is a familiar 

 expression of doubt and perplexity among ol iroXXoC who may not 

 be altogether so guiltless. 



According to the Darwinists, the loss of hair from the body, 

 which man has suffered in comparison with simial ancestors, is 

 attributable to the benefit he has derived from being able to get 

 rid of his parasites, or from the greater advantage he obtained in 

 the struggle for existence owing to being less troubled with para- 

 sites, whose numbers diminished from want of " cover." Such an 

 idea, however, confuses cause and effect in a most remarkable 

 manner. The diminution of parasites is a result of the loss of 

 hair, but it certainly is not the cause of the hair being lost. To 

 make it so is similar to saying that the diminution of trees in 

 newly settled countries is caused by a decrease in the number of 

 wild beasts. It supposes that the greater freedom from parasites 

 was so important to simial ancestors who lost their hair as to 

 give them immense advantage in the struggle for existence, for- 

 getting that this does not explain the cause of the loss of hair in 

 the first place. With loss of hair once started, some such benefit 

 may be granted ; but what caused the loss of hair in the first 

 place ? " Spontaneous variation " is no answer at all ; what is 

 the cause of the spontaneous variation ? This seems too early a 

 stage at which to say Ignosco or Ignoro. 



Then this parasite idea ought to be applied to what is going 

 on at the present day to the loss of hair from the head but un- 



