DESCENT OF MAN FROM SOME LOWER FORM. 171 



considerable length rising from the naked skin above the 

 eyes, and corresponding to our eyebrows ; similar long 

 hairs project from the hairy coyering of the superciliary 

 ridges in some baboons. 



IS MAN THE MOST HELPLESS OF THE ANIMALS ? 



Descent ■'■* ^^ often been objected to such views as 



of Man, the foregoing, that man is one of the most 

 page 63. helpless and defenseless creatures in the world ; 

 and that during his early and less well-developed condi- 

 tion he would have been still more helpless. The Duke 

 of Argyll, for instance, insists that " the human frame 

 has diverged from the structure of brutes, in the direction 

 of greater physical helplessness and weakness. That is 

 to say, it is a divergence which of all others it is most 

 impossible to ascribe to mere natural selection." He ad- 

 duces the naked and unprotected state of the body, the 

 absence of great teeth or claws for defense, the small 

 strength and speed of man, and his slight power of dis- 

 covering food or of avoiding danger by smell. To these 

 deficiencies there might be added one still more serious, 

 namely, that he can not climb quickly, and so escape from 

 enemies. The loss of hair would not have been a great 

 injury to the inhabitants of a warm country. For we 

 know that the unclothed Fuegians can exist under a 

 wretched climate. When we compare the defenseless 

 state of man with that of apes, we must remember that 

 the great canine teeth with which the latter are provided 

 are possessed in their full development by the males alone, 

 and are chiefly used by them for fighting with their rivals ; 

 yet the females, which are not thus provided, manage to 

 survive. 



In regard to bodily size or strength, we do not know 



