164 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
ilia is to-day, with magnificent grinding teeth for crushing hard fruits, and huge 
canines for fighting with other males for the possession of the females. A trace 
of this remains in the more powerful dentition of savage races, who stand a 
short distance nearer to our common ape-like ancestor. CiviUzed human-beings, 
on the other hand, have absolutely no use for canine teeth, which are therefore 
found to be small in proportion to the civilization of their possessors ; and for the 
rest of the teeth they are eminently unsuited for the work they have to perform. 
This is sufficiently plain from their early decay and the artificial means which 
have to be employed in order to retain them even to maturity. The so-called 
'• wisdom teeth " are even now being lost. They are the last to appear, and the 
first to go, and even while we have them are unemployed. The rest will follow 
them probably two at a time, and their places will be supplied no doubt by a 
hardening of the gums, which cannot fail to be imcomparably more convenient 
and suitable to the viands of civilized life. 
Long hair, beard, naustache and whiskers are all sexual ornaments acquired 
by man to charm and allure the opposite sex, just as the canine teeth were 
acquired to fight for a similar purpose. But neither is sexual selection so power- 
ful now, nor are these hairy ornaments so important as they used to be. Mar- 
riage is no longer settled by the strength of magnificent hairiness of the suitor. 
Wealth will cover the bald head ; intellect is more valued than whiskers, and the 
length of a rent roll counterbalances the shortness of a beard. A woman too, 
who has but a scanty supply of that ancient "pride of a woman" — long hair, 
can eke it out by fraud and art, nor need she go unwedded on that account. 
Neither men nor women therefore who happen to be ill-furnished with hair are 
now as formerly, handicapped in the race of life and unlikely to leave children 
to inherit their defects. On the other hand, they gain a distinct advantage at 
the outset, inasmuch as no vital force is in their case wasted in the production of 
useless ornaments. There is, moreover, a mysterious law of correlation of growth 
between the hair and the teeth. Throughout the animal world strong and lux- 
uriant hair is accompanied by regular and durable teeth; and a hairless breed of 
dogs exists which is equally conspicuous for the absence of its teeth. Hence, it 
might have been expected that civilization would affect the hair as much as the 
teeth, and infallibly tend to suppress all hirsute adornments, as not being suffi- 
ciently necessary to the welfare of the individual to repay the cost of their pro- 
duction. Experience confirms this view; for as the teeth are small, soon lost, and 
two of them, at least, capricious in appearance, so bald heads in the prime of life, 
smooth cheeks and beardless chins among men and women conspicuous for the 
absence of natural locks, are common in civilized countries; while savage tribes, 
who have more lately left, or still remain in, that state of society in which indi- 
vidual strength and personal ornament are demanded by the principles of natural 
and sexual selection, have stronger teeth and retain more of their original wealth 
of hair. 
With respect to his locomotive limbs civilized man has lost some faculties 
and is losing others. The prehensile power of the great toe, inherited from our 
