772 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



ferent races, as we have seen in tlie last chapter how differ- 

 ent is the standard of beauty in these respects. These char- 

 acters will therefore probably have been acted on through 

 sexual selection; but we have no means of judging whether 

 they have been acted on chiefly from the male or female 

 side. The musical faculties of man have likewise been 

 already discussed. 



Absence of Hair on the Body, and its Development on the 

 Face and Head. — From the presence of the woolly hair or 

 lanugo on the human foetus, and of rudimentary hairs scat- 

 tered over the body during maturity, we may infer that man 

 is descended from some animal which was born hairy and re- 

 mained so during life. The loss of hair is an inconvenience 

 and probably an injury to man, even in a hot climate, for he 

 is thus exposed to the scorching of the sun, and to sudden 

 chills, especially during wet weather. As Mr. Wallace re- 

 marks, the natives in all countries are glad to protect their 

 naked backs and shoulders with some slight covering. No 

 one supposes that the nakedness of the skin is any direct 

 advantage to man; his body therefore cannot have been 

 divested of hair through natural selection." Nor, as shown 

 in a former chapter, have we any evidence that this can be 

 due to the direct action of climate, or that it is the result 

 of correlated development. 



The absence of hair on the body is to a certain extent 

 a secondary sexual character; for in all parts of the world 

 women are less hairy than men. Therefore we may reason- 

 ably suspect that this character has been gained through 

 sexual selection. We know that the faces of several species 

 of monkeys, and large surfaces at the posterior end of the 



" "Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection," 1870, p. 346. Mr. 

 WaUaca believes (p. 350) "that some intelligent power has guided or determined 

 the development ot man"; and he considers the hairless condition of the skin 

 as coming under this head. The Rev. T. E. Stebbing, in commenting on this 

 view ("Transactions of Devonshire Assoc, for Science," 1870), remarks, that 

 had Mr. Wallace "employed his usual ingenuity on the question of man's hair- 

 less skin, he might have seen the possibility of its selection through its supe- 

 rior beauty or the health attaching to superior cleanliness." 



