366 THE TREND OF THE RACE 



oped, the teeth placed in a normal arch, but caries, if present, is 

 of slight extent, indeed mere specks." 



It is not improbable that, as Kingsley^ has pointed out, 

 many dental irregularities and maladjustments are the result of 

 racial crossing. With more or less independent variability of 

 jaws and teeth it often happens that the teeth are unduly crowded 

 in small jaws or are otherwise out of normal relations. It is a 

 common opinion among those who have written on the subject, 

 that while food and other environmental conditions are potent 

 causes of dental deterioration, the withdrawal of natural selection 

 has been an important contributory cause also. This conclusion 

 is not improbable, but it is not capable at present of statistical 

 proof. 



Along with the deterioration of teeth there seems to be a 

 correlative tendency to the loss of hair. Baldness is much more 

 common with us than among primitive races. Although this is 

 commonly ascribed to wearing hats, recent studies of the inher- 

 itance of baldness have shown that this common infirmity de- 

 pends largely on ancestry and that the influence of hats has been 

 greatly exaggerated. Baldness has never been associated with 

 general degeneracy. On the contrary it is a not unusual ad- 

 junct of distinguished personality. The loss of hair may be 

 bewailed partly on account of a certain protective value which 

 it continues to possess, and still more on aesthetic grounds, 

 but further progress toward universal baldness would probably 

 not prove a serious drawback. We have all but lost the use of 

 some of our ear muscles and entirely lost the use of others, but 

 we are no worse off in our present mode of life. Our little toe 

 is said to be degenerating and there are probably several minor 

 structures in the same situation, A further degeneration of the 

 vermiform appendix would probably be a positive advantage. 



It is a fairly general opinion which has a considerable following 



in medical circles that the physique of modern civilized woman 



has become rather seriously weakened in the last few generations. 



One index of this is the increasing difficulty experienced in bearing 



* A Treatise on Oral Deformities, 1880. 



