l8 The Descent of Man. Part I, 



mucli more highly developed than ir. the white and civilised 

 races.'"' Nevertheless it does not warn them of danger, nor guide 

 them to their food; nor does it prevent the Esquimaux from 

 sleeping in the most fetid atmosphere, nor many savages from 

 eating half-putrid meat. In Europeans the power differs greatly 

 in different individuals, as I am assured by an eminent naturalist 

 who possesses this sense highly developed, and who has at- 

 tended to the subject. Those who believe in the principle 

 of gradual evolution, will not readily admit that the sense ot 

 smell in its present state was originally acquired by man, as 

 he now exists. He inherits the power in an enfeebled and 

 so far rudimentary condition, from some early progenitor, to 

 whom it was highly serviceable, and by whom it was con- 

 tinually used. In those animals which have this sense highly 

 developed, such as dogs and horses, the recollection of persons 

 and of places is strongly associated with their odour ; and we can 

 thus perhaps understand how it is, as Dr. Maudsley has truly 

 remarked," that the sense of smell in man " is singularly eifective 

 " in reoalUng vividly the ideas and images of forgotten scenes 

 " and places." 



Man differs conspicuously from all the other Primates in being 

 almost naked. But a few short straggling hairs are found over 

 the greater part of the body in the man, and fine down on that 

 of the woman. The different races differ much in hairiness ; and 

 in the individuals of the same race the hairs are highly variable, 

 not only in abundance, but likewise in position : thus in some 

 Europeans the shoulders are quite naked, whilst in others they 

 bear thick tufts of hair.'' There can be little doubt that the 

 hairs thus scattered over the body are the rudiments of the 

 uniform liairy coat of the lower animals. This view is rendered 

 all the more probable, as it is known that fine, short, and pale- 

 coloured hairs on the limbs and other parts of tho body, occasion- 



'° The iiccount given by Humboldt olfactory region, as well as of tlie 

 of the ]jower of smell possessed by skin of the body. I have, therefore 

 the natives of South America is well spoken in the text of the dark- 

 known, and has been confirmed by coloured races having a finer sense 

 others. M. Houzeau (' fitudes sur of smell than the white races. See 

 les Faoultes Mentaies,' &c., tom. i. his paper, ' Medico-ChirurgicalTran- 

 1872, p. 91) asserts that he re- sactions,' London, vol. liii., 1870, 

 peatedly made experiments, and p, 276. 



proved that Negroes and Indians ^' ' The Physiology and Pathology 



could recognis"? persons in the dark of Mind,' 2nd edit. 1868, p. 134. 

 by their odour. Dr. W. Ogle has ^ Eschricht, (Jcber die Kichtnng 



made some curious observations oi der Haare am menschlichen Kijrper, 



the connection between the power 'Miiller's Archiv fiir Anat. uud Phvs.' 



of smell and the colouring matter 1837, s. 47. I shall often have't< 



r^f the mucous nnombvane of the refer to this very curious paper. 



