HOMO LOGY. 93 



the face is a very variable character in the 

 Quadrumana (being in every case most abundant 

 in the males) and also in the various races of 

 man. The Caucasian race is usually full- 

 bearded, while the African negro* and Mon- 

 golian are almost destitute of this appendage. 

 If, as Darwin thinks, the beard has gradually 

 disappeared in women in consequence of men 

 always selecting those with the smoothest faces, 

 it is difficult to understand why this influence 

 has reacted on the males of some races and 

 not on those of others. It is improbable that 

 Natural Selection should have acted in the one 

 case, and sexual selection in the other ; and 

 difference of taste among different races is 

 always liable to fluctuations, and would hardly 

 be a sufficiently permanent factor to account for 

 the difference in result. Yet the presence of 

 long hair round the mouth in both sexes in the 

 foetus'} 1 might seem to lend strong support to 

 Darwin's view; but this may, and probably 

 does point to the characters of a very remote 



* Some of the negro races of Central Africa are bearded, but this 

 may be due to a Semitic admixture. The black Papuan races are. 

 however, more or less bearded. 



t Comp. Darwin, op, cit. vol. i. p. 25. 



