12 THE PHYSICAL KINSHIP 



III. Man a Mammal. 



Man is a mammal. He belongs to the most 

 brilliant and influential of the five classes of verte- 

 brates the class to which belong so many of his 

 associates and victims, the class to which belong 

 the horse, the dog, the deer, the ox, the sheep, the 

 swine, the squirrel, the camel, the unattenuated 

 elephant, and the timid-hearted hare. To this 

 class belong also the lion, the tiger, the kangaroo, 

 the beaver, the bear, the bat, the monkey, the 

 mole, the wolf, the ornithorhynchus, and the 

 whale in short, all animals that have hair. Fishes 

 and reptiles have scales ; birds have feathers ; all 

 mammals are covered to a greater or less extent 

 with hair. The aquatic habits of whales render 

 hair of no use to them. Hence, while the unborn 

 of these animals still cling to the structural tradi- 

 tions of their ancestors and are covered with hair, 

 the adults are almost hairless. The sartorial 

 habits of human beings and the selective influ- 

 ences of the sexes have had a similar effect on the 

 hairy covering of the human body. Hair exists 

 all over the human body surface, excepting on the 

 soles of the hands and feet, but in a greatly 

 dwarfed condition. It is only on the scalp and 

 on the faces of males, where it is scientifically 

 assisted for purposes of display, that it grows 

 luxuriantly. It is by no means certain that even 

 the hair on the masculine scalp will last forever. 

 For if the hermetical derby and other deadly 

 devices worn by men continue their devastations 



