MAMMALS 53 



or ornament. In all communities the women pay more 

 attention to clothes than men, and this agrees with the fact 

 that women, as a rule, have less hair. 



We have, however, to explain, if we can, the fact that 

 hair in both sexes is almost entirely absent in childhood, and 

 appears more especially on the pubes at puberty. If the 

 diminution of the hair is attributed to the wearing of clothes, 

 it may be objected that in many savage races the children 

 are allowed to run naked and only the mature are clothed. 

 This objection, however, loses some of its force when we 

 consider the treatment of babies. Swaddling clothes are a 

 very general and probably a very ancient institution, and 

 many primitive races, such as the American Indians, use 

 portable cradles, in which the infants are closely swathed up 

 and unable to move hand or foot. Somewhat similar treat- 

 ment of infants is still practised in France and other 

 civilised countries. That such treatment would lead directly 

 in course of time to the atrophy of the hair is a suggestion by 

 no means improbable or far-fetched. It is supported by the 

 comparison of the condition of the young in different animals. 

 The horse, calf, or lamb, for instance, which are dropped in 

 the open air and run about a few hours afterwards, are born 

 fully clothed with hair, while mice and rabbits are born 

 naked, and are suckled in a dark warm nest in which they 

 are closely covered up by the nest and the mother. Women 

 in the primitive state probably had to carry their children in 

 frequent wanderings until they were long past the period of 

 babyhood, and for this reason, if for no other, probably covered 

 them with some kind of garment which made them into a 

 more portable bundle. Such treatment may possibly have 

 been the original cause of the greater hairlessness of children. 

 That clothing does, as a matter of fact, tend to the loss of 

 hair, seems to be proved by the development of baldness in 

 civilised nations. This character, however irregular it may 



