308 DR WALTER KIDD. 



through life, with very little moditication here and there from 

 secondary causes. It is legitimate then to assume from analogy 

 (in the absence of accurate observations among foetal monkeys 

 and higher apes) that in the case of Man's supposed nearest 

 congeners, the slope found in adult apes and monkeys approxi- 

 mates very closely to that of the foetal animals. The striking 

 peculiarities of hair-slope found in Man, and the equally striking 

 simplicity of slope found in apes and monkeys,' would on the 

 theory of Voigt differentiate Man sharply from those animals 

 supposed to resemble closely his ancestral stock. But Man is 

 so closely allied in type of structure to a representative of the 

 Simian family, that on Voigt's theory similar peculiarities of 

 slope ought to be found in these two closely similar animals. 

 This is not so ; in fact the difference in many respects is 

 startling. If we were compelled to accept Voigt's theories of 

 hair-slope as proved, we should also have to reject the Simian 

 ancestry of Man, and it was this consideration that induced me 

 to look further into the matter of the hair-slope in Man. It 

 may be going too far to say that in that case we should have 

 to reject the prevailing view of man's ancestry, but I can see 

 no escape from the dilemma that we should be constrained to 

 reject either that view, or another which by many is held nearly 

 as tenaciously' — the non-inheritance of acquired characters. It 

 is inconceivable, and not indeed contended, that natural or 

 any other form of selection can have operated to produce the 

 whimsical peculiarities, if one may so term them, which we 

 find existing on the human body. They cannot be due to 

 sexual selection. And if they cannot be due to natural selection 

 a fortiori, they cannot be vestigial ; for, not existing on the 

 assumed ancestors of man, nor possessing any survival- value 

 if they had existed, the vestigial view of them is estopped. It 

 seems that there is no account of the peculiarities in question 

 to be given than that they are due to the inheritance of 

 characters acquired in ancestors, whose hairy covering was in 

 a plastic state, through hal)it or use- — in effect that they are 

 the result uf Lamarckian factors. This I propose to maintain 

 by the consideration of several regions of the human skin, in 

 which departures from the general slope of hair found in allied 

 Mammals are observed. Briefly and roughly it may be said 



