CiiAP. XX. Beards. 603 



there 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. In those Quadrnmana in which the male has a larger 

 beard than that of the female, it is fully developed only at 

 maturity, just as with mankind ; and it is possible that only the 

 later stages of development have been retained by man. In 

 opposition to this view of the retention of the beard from an 

 early period, is the fact of its great variability in different races, 

 and even within the same race ; for this indicates reversion, — 

 long lost characters being very apt to vary on re-appearance. 



Nor must we overlook the part which sexual selection may 

 have played in later times ; for we know that with savages, the 

 men of the beardless races take infinite pains in eradicating every 

 hair from their faces as something odious, whilst the men of 

 the bearded races feel the greatest pride in their beards. The 

 women, no doubt, participate in these feelings, and if so sexual 

 selection can hardly have failed to have effected something in the 

 course of later times. It is also possible that the long-continued 

 habit of eradicating the hair may have produced an inherited 

 effect. Dr. Brown-Sequard has shewn that if certain animals are 

 operated on in a particular manner, their offspring are affected. 

 Further evidence could be given of the inheritance of the effects 

 of mutilations; but a fact lately ascertained by Mr. Salvin 25 

 has a more direct bearing on the present question ; for he has 

 shewn that the motmots, which are known habitually to bite off 

 the barbs of the two central tail-feathers, have the barbs of these 

 feathers naturally somewhat reduced. 27 Nevertheless with man- 

 kind, the habit of eradicating the beard and the hairs on the 

 body would probably not have arisen until these had already 

 become by some means reduced. 



It is difficult to form any judgment as to how the hair on the 

 head became developed to its present great length in many races. 

 Eschricht 28 states that in the human foetus the hair on the face 

 during the fifth month is longer thau that on the head ; and 

 this indicates that our semi-human progenitors were not 

 furnished* with long tresses, which must therefore have been 

 a late acquisition. This is likewise indicated by the extra- 

 ordinary difference in the length of the-, hair in the different 

 races; in the negro the hair forms a mere curly mat; with us 



2£ ' Oa the tail-feathers of Momo- Some distinguished ethnologists, 



tus ? ' Proc. Zoolcg. Soc.,' 1873, p. amongst others M. Gosse of Geneva, 



429. believe that artificial modifications 



27 Mr. Sproat has suggested of the skull tend to be inherited. 

 ('Scenes and Studies of Savage 2 * ' Ueber die Richtung,' ibid.*, 



Life,' 1868, p. 25) this same view. 40. 



