MAMMALS 



47 



From the zoological point of view, however, it is more 

 important to consider differences in particular characters 

 between man and woman. The most conspicuous of such 

 differences is the presence of beard and moustache in man and 

 their almost entire absence in woman. This difference is 

 most developed in the Aryan and Semitic races, in others it 

 is less conspicuous. As the beard is confined to the male 

 orang, it is probable enough that it was derived by ourselves 

 from the ape-like ancestor. Darwin believed that the beard 

 in the quadrumana, in some confined to, or more developed in 

 the males, in others equally developed in both sexes, was first 

 acquired by the males as an ornament, through sexual selec- 

 tion. But he points out that where the beard is a male 

 unisexual character it is not fully developed until sexual 

 maturity is attained. In my opinion, as maintained in the 

 Introduction, this is an indication that some stimulation is at 

 work which only comes into action with sexual maturity. 

 There is little reason to believe that among wild apes the 

 females would choose a mate for the sake of his more hand- 

 some beard. As the keepers of the Zoological Gardens in- 

 formed Darwin that many monkeys attack each other by the 

 throat, it is, I think, not impossible that the growth of the 

 beard was originally excited by the stimulus caused by such 

 attacks, the hair of the throat and around the mouth being 

 regularly moved and pulled by the adversary's jaws and teeth, 

 or perhaps by the hands. The evidence, I admit, is very 

 slender, but further observation of the natural habits of the 

 orang and other quadrumana might strengthen it. Such a 

 result is, at all events, not impossible in apes whose face and 

 throat were already hairy. It may be asked in reference to the 

 mandrill described below, why I have there attributed a totally 

 different condition to similar attacks. The reply to which is 

 that in the mandrill the snout is long, and the wounds of the 

 adversary's teeth in that species are supposed to be inflicted 



