DESCENT OF MAN FROM SOME LOWER FORM. 151 



converge from abore and below to a point at the elbow. 

 This curious arrangement, so unlike that in most of the 

 lower mammals, is common to the gorilla, chimpanzee, 

 orang, some species of Hylobates, and even to some few 

 American monkeys. But in Hylohates agilis the hair on 

 the fore-arm is directed downward or toward the wrist in 

 the ordinary manner ; and in H. lar it is nearly erect, 

 with only a very slight forward inclination ; so that in 

 .this latter species it is in a transitional state. It can 

 hardly be doubted that with most mammals the thickness 

 of the hair on the back and its direction are adapted to 

 throw ofE the rain ; even the transverse hairs on the fore- 

 legs of a dog may serve for this end when he is. coiled 

 up asleep. Mr. Wallace, who has carefully studied the 

 habits of the orang, remarks that the convergence of the 

 hair toward the elbow on the arms of the orang may be 

 explained as serving to throw off the rain, for this animal 

 during rainy weather sits with its arms bent, and with 

 the hands clasped round a branch or over its head. Ac- 

 cording to Livingstone, the gorilla also "sits in pelting 

 rain with his hands over his head." If the above ex- 

 planation is correct, as seems probable, the direction of 

 the hair on our own arms offers a curious record of our 

 former state ; for no one supposes that it is now of any 

 use in throwing off the rain ; nor, in our present erect 

 condition, is it properly directed for this purpose. 



_ It must not be supposed that the resem- 



blances between man and certain apes in the 

 above and many other points — such as in having a naked 

 forehead, long tresses on the head, etc. — are all necessarily 

 the result of unbroken inheritance from a common pro- 

 genitor, or of subsequent reversion. Many of these re- 

 semblances are more probably due to analogous variation. 



