[8 The Descent of Man. Part 1, 



much more highly developed than yl the white and civilised 

 races. 36 Nevertheless it does not warn them of clanger, 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. In Europeans the power differs greatly 

 in different individuals, as I am assured by an eminent naturalist 

 who possesses this sense highly developed, and who has at- 

 tended to the subject. Those who believe in the principle 

 of gradual evolution, will not readily admit that the sense ot 

 smell in its present state was originally acquired by man, as 

 he now exists. He inherits the power in an enfeebled and 

 so far rudimentary condition, from some early progenitor, to 

 whom it was highly serviceable, and by whom it was con- 

 tinually used. In those animals which have this sense highly 

 developed, such as dogs and horses, the recollection of persons 

 and of places is strongly associated with their odour ; and we can 

 thus perhaps understand how it is, as Dr. Maudsley has truly 

 remarked, 37 that the sense of smell in man " is singularly effective 

 " in recalling vividly the ideas and images of forgotten scenes 

 " and places." 



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 man, and fine down on that 

 of the woman. The different races differ much in hairiness ; and 

 in the individuals of the same race the hairs are highly variable, 

 not only in abundance, but likewise in position : thus in some 

 Europeans the shoulders are quite naked, whilst in others they 

 bear thick tufts of hair. 38 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 fine, short, and pale- 

 coloured hairs on the limbs and other parts of the body, occasion- 



38 The account given by Humboldt olfactory region, as well as of the 

 of the power of smell possessed by skin of the body. I have, therefore, 

 the natives of South America is well spoken in the text of the dark- 

 known, and has been confirmed by coloured races having a finer sense 

 others. M. Houzeau (' Etudes sur of smell than the white races. See 

 les Faculte's Mentales,' &c., torn. i. his paper, ' Medico-Chirurgical Tran- 

 1872, p. 91) asserts that he re- suctions,' London, vol. liii., 1870, 

 peatedly made experiments, and p. 276. 



proved that Negi-oes and Indians 37 ' The Physiology and Pathology 



could recognise persons in the dark of Mind,' 2nd edit. 1868, p. 134. 

 by their odour. Dr. W. Ogle has 38 Eschricht, Ueber die Richtung 



made some curious observations or der Haare am menschlichen Korper, 



the connection between the power 'Miiller's Archiv fur Anat. und Phys.' 



of smell and the colouring matter 1837, s. 47. I shall often have tc 



of the mucous membrane of the refer to this very curious paper. 



