20 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



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 attended to the subject. Those who believe in the 

 principle of gradual evolution, will not readily admit that 

 the sense of 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 continually used. In those animals which 

 have this sense highly developed, such as dogs and horses, 

 the recollection of persons and of places is strongly associ- 

 ated with their odor; and we can thus perhaps understand 

 how it is, as Dr. Maudsley has truly remarked,* 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, while in others they bear thick tufts of 

 hair.f There can belittle doubt that the hairs thus scat- 

 tered 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- 

 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 inflamed surfaces. X 



I am informed by Sir James Paget that often several 

 members of a family have a few hairs in their eyebrows 

 much longer than the others; so that even this slight 



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



f Eschricht, Ueber die Richtung der Haare am menschlichen Kor- 

 per, "Miiller's Archiv fur Anat. und Phys.," 1837, s. 47. I shall 

 often have to refer to this very curious paper. 



I Paget, "Lectures on Surgical Pathology," 1853, vol. i, p. 71, 



