52 



SEXIL 



:rmsM 



provided with fur indicates that the loss of hair in the exist- 

 ing forms has been due to the heat of a tropical climate. 

 According to Quatrefages, extremes of climate have had 

 marked effects on the development of hair in certain races of 

 domestic animals. On cold and lofty plateaux in the Andes 

 pigs which have run wild have, after some generations, 

 developed a kind of wool. In the warm valleys of the Mag- 

 dalena the wool of sheep becomes detached in flakes and is 

 replaced by a short, stiff, and shining hair. In the burning 

 plains of Mariquita, again, the cattle have become hairless. 



Important as these indications of the influence of tropical 

 heat may be, it is evident that all animals are not hairless in 

 the tropics. The skins of some orders, e.g. Ungulata, may be 

 affected, and others, e.g. Carnivora, not. As Darwin says, the 

 fact that apes and monkeys in the tropics are well clothed 

 with hair is opposed to the supposition that man became 

 naked through the action of the sun, and so likewise is the 

 fact that he has long hair on the head, and, in the male sex, 

 hair on the face. 



Darwin suggests that woman first became deprived of 

 hair for ornamental purposes by means of sexual selection. 

 We have, however, no reason for assuming that primitive 

 men preferred the women who had least hair. It seems to 

 me much more probable that the true cause of the loss of 

 hair was the wearing of clothes. It is true that some 

 savages wear little or no clothes in their present state, but if 

 we have reason to believe that all human races are descended 

 from a single primitive species, we may conclude that the 

 habit of covering the body is very ancient, and possibly is 

 derived from the single primitive human race. The erect 

 attitude and some skill of hand, when this organ was released 

 from the function of supporting the body or aiding in 

 progression, would lead at a very early stage to the wearing 

 of some kind of clothes, whether for protection, warmth, 



