Chap. XX. BEARDS. 379 



northern islands of the Japan archipelago. But the 

 laws of inheritance are so complex than we can seldom 

 understand their action. If the greater hairiness of 

 certain races be the result of reversion, unchecked by 

 any form of selection, the extreme variability of this 

 character, even within the limits of the same race, 

 ceases to be remarkable. 



With respect to the beard, if we turn to our best 

 guide, namely the Quadrumana, we find beards equally 

 well developed in both sexes of many species, but in 

 others, either confined to the males, or more developed 

 in them than in the females. From this fact, and from 

 the curious arrangement, as well as the bright colours, of 

 the hair about the heads of many monkeys, it is highly 

 probable, as before explained, that the males first 

 acquired their beards as an ornament through sexual 

 selection, transmitting them in most cases, in an equal or 

 nearly equal degree, to their offspring of both sexes. 

 We know from Esehricht^^ that with mankind, the 

 female as well as the male fcetus is furnished with much 

 hair on the face, especially round the mouth ; and this 

 indicates that we are descended from a progenitor, of 

 which both sexes were bearded. It appears therefore 

 at first sight probable that man has retained his beard 

 from a very early period, whilst woman lost her beard 

 at the same time when her body became almost com- 

 pletely divested of hair. Even the colour of the beard 

 with mankind seems to have been inherited from an 

 ape-like progenitor; for when thei-e is any difference 

 in tint between the hair of the head and the beard, the 

 latter is lighter coloured in all monkeys and in man. 

 There is less improbability in the men of the bearded 



22 " Ueber die Kichtung der Haare am Menschlichcn Korper," in 

 Mliller's ' Archiv fur Auat. und Pliys.' 1887, s. 40. 



