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would be called its natural position. It has been made to 
assume this position in order that it may not cover the face, 
which it would do if it grew in the same direction as in the 
male. A woman’s long hair is so much under the influence 
of gravity, on account of its length, that it would fall off the 
head in any direction in which it might be placed. 
A female infant shews that the hair growing from the 
forehead is a recent acquirement, because here the hair grows 
from the crown over the skull to the forehead, as in the 
male. (See Plate, fig. 1.) 
The growth of the hair towards the forehead is directly 
contrary to what would obtain in any quadruped which had to 
run swiftly; and as the contrary direction—namely, from the 
forehead—is found in such different animals as the rabbit, cat, 
cow, dog, pig, ete., I am inclined to think that the backward 
direction must have become a well-established character. On 
the other hand, the forward position must have been acquired 
for ornament. It may be an hereditary mark of a time when 
the hair came to the forehead and then rose up in a frill (for 
ornament), or some such arrangement as shewn in Darwin’s 
“Descent of Man,” 2nd Ed., p. 549, in his figures of monkey’s 
faces. The notion of the frill is supported by the fact that 
with little persuasion children’s hair assumes such a position, 
known as a “brutus”’—a word of which I will not venture the 
etymology. 
The fact that the short hair on a child’s forehead grows 
upwards further supports the idea of a frill, That the hair 
grows upwards, which is contrary to gravity, is due to inheri- 
tance—to grow from the eyes backwards must have become a 
firmly established feature in quadrupeds owing to windage; 
and it would be retained by inheritance in slow-moving descend- 
ants, unless altered for ornament or by gravity. 
The reason why hair should grow in a kind of circular 
manner as it does on what is called the crown of the head is not 
clear to me. It is the result of the hair growing different 
ways; but why the hair should not radiate from one point 
instead of assuming a kind of circular twist is not obvious. 
dates 
