WILL THE COMING WOMAN LOSE HER HAIR? 371 



size and weight as to strain every hair at the root, and produce 

 continuous headaches ; and while their headgear may not be of 

 quite so preposterous a shape as man's, they wear it much more 

 constantly, since they sit with their heads covered in all public 

 places, while he as a rule wears his hat only out of doors. Then, 

 too, women, as a general thing, enjoy much less vigorous health 

 than men, eat less nourishing food — pickles and candy often con- 

 stituting a large part of their diet — are more frequently sufferers 

 from headaches, deficient circulation, general debility, and Heaven 

 only knows what not ; and yet, with all this, the sorriest speci- 

 mens of the sex, physically, often luxuriate in the most abundant 

 suits of hair. 



Now, why should one sex enjoy such comparative immunity 

 from the results of practices that are producing such disastrous 

 effects upon the personal appearance of the other ? The answer, 

 I take it, is to be found in a cause which Mr. Darwin claims to 

 have been the chief factor in all cases where the purely ornamental 

 qualities of a species are concerned — sexual selection. While wom- 

 en, under the pressure of public sentiment against " old maids," 

 and the more urgent pressure of material necessities, will, as a 

 general thing, marry anybody they think likely to give them a 

 support, regardless of personal defects or attractions, men are 

 more fastidious, and it goes without saying that a bald-headed 

 woman would stand little chance, to use Mr. Darwin's argument, 

 of leaving offspring to inherit her deficiencies. I have never 

 known a woman who would make a bald head an invincible objec- 

 tion to a man who was eligible in other respects. Most of them 

 are indifferent to that peculiarity, while some even like it ; they 

 think it looks intellectual, as more than one young woman, un- 

 suspicious of the grave scientific motive underlying my frivolous 

 " chaff," has assured me. 



After occupying myself for some time with observations upon 

 old and middle-aged people, it occurred to me that the influence of 

 this subtle factor, sexual selection, could best be determined by 

 observations upon boys and girls under twenty, in whom, it is to 

 be presumed, the influences of heredity have not yet been supple- 

 mented, to any great extent, by other causes. Accordingly, I had 

 printed, and sent out to teachers and school superintendents, five 

 hundred blanks, calling for statistics on the subject, with the re- 

 quest that they be filled and returned to me within the year. Of 

 the five hundred, eighty-six were returned, and some of these con- 

 tain discrepancies that render them practically worthless — a re- 

 sult, be it remarked in passing, which betrays a curious indiffer- 

 ence on the part of teachers to matters of biological interest. The 

 Atlantic City schools are the only ones from which I succeeded 

 in obtaining anything like a full report, my efforts being ably 



