24 THE DESCENT OF MAN". [Part I. 



remarked, 27 that the sense of smell in man " is singularly 

 effective in recalling vividly the ideas and images of for- 

 gotten 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 odor. 



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 the body in the male 

 sex, and fine down on that of the female sex. In individ- 

 uals belonging to the same race these hairs are highly 

 variable, not only in abundance, but likewise in position : 

 thus the shoulders in some Europeans are quite naked, 

 while in others they bear thick tufts of hair. 28 There can 

 be little doubt that the hairs thus scattered over the body 

 are the rudiments of the uniform hairy coat of the lower 

 animals. This view is rendered all the more probable, as 

 it is known that line, short, and pale-colored 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 in- 

 flamed surfaces. 29 



I am informed by Mr. Paget that persons belonging 

 to the same family often have a few hairs in their eye- 

 brows much longer than the others ; so that this slight 

 peculiarity seems to be inherited. These hairs apparently 

 represent the vibrissa?, which are used as organs of toucli 

 by many of the lower animals. In a young chimpanzee I 

 observed that a few upright, rather long, hairs projected 



27 'The Physiology and Pathology of Mind,' 2d edit. 1868, p. 134. 



28 Eschricht, Ueber die Eichtungder Haare am menschlichen Korp er, 

 ' M tiller's Archiv fur Anat. und Phys.' 1837, s. 47. I shall often have to 

 refer to this very curious paper. 



85 Paget, 'Lectures on Surgical Pathology,' 1S53, vol. i. p. 71. 



