56 HOMO V. DARWIN. 



to the supposition that man became Kaked through the 

 action of the sun." (Vol. 1. p. 149.) 



Lord C. That is a very candid admission, Mr. Darwin. 



Homo. Doubtless it is, my Lord ; and also a vfery 

 wise admission, the thing being almost self-evident. But 

 will Mr. Darwin now tell us how man lost his hairy 

 covering ? 



Darwin. " I am inclined to believe," my Lord, " as we 

 shall see under Sexual Selection, that man, or rather, pri- 

 marily woman, became divested of hair for ornamental 

 purposes ; and according to this belief, it is not surprising 

 that man should differ so greatly in hairiness from all his 

 lower brethren, for characters gained through Sexual 

 Selection often differ, in closely related forms, to an extra- 

 ordinary degree." (Vol. 1. pp. 149, 150.) 



Homo. A most extraordinary supposition, my Lord ! 

 Man was originally a hairy animal himself, and hence other 

 hairy animals were his "brethren." Probably, in those 

 days, the whale, and the dolphin, and the hippopotamus, 

 had not become so hairless as they are now. It seems 

 somewhat singular, then, that female whales, female 

 elephants, female rhinoceroses, and female savages, should 

 all of them have become possessed of the desire to get rid 

 of their hairy coverings ; that they should have induced 

 the same desire in the other sex ; and that, in obedience 

 to this desire, the hair on the bodies of all should have 

 become "small by degrees, and beautifully less " ! 



Darwin. I did not say, my Lord, that whales were ever 

 covered with hair. 



Homo. I beg Mr. Darwin's pardon, my Lord, but I 

 supposed that, belonging as they do to the mammalia, 

 whales might, in former times, have^been hairy, like their 

 " brethren " of that order ; but I do not insist on this 



