^CiiAP. XIX. 
SEXUAL SELECTION : MAN. 
355 
CHAPTEE XX. 
Secondaey Sexual Characters of Man — continued . 
On the effects of the continued selection of women according to a 
different standard of beauty in each race — On the causes which 
interfere with sexual selection in civilised and savage nations 
— Conditions favourable to sexual selection during primeval 
dimes — On the manner of action of sexual selection with 
mankind — On the women in savage tribes having some power 
to choose their husbands — -Absence of hair on the body, and 
development of the beard — Colour of the skin — Summaiy. 
We have seen in the last chapter that with all barbarous 
races ornaments, dress, and external appearance are 
highly valued ; and that the men judge of the beauty 
of their women by widely different standards. We 
must next inquire whether this preference and the 
consequent selection during many generations of those 
women, which appear to the men of each race the 
most attractive, has altered the character either of the 
females alone or of both sexes. With mammals the 
general rule appears to be that characters of all kinds 
are inherited equally by the males and females ; we 
might therefore expect that with mankind any cha- 
racters gained through sexual selection by the females 
would commonly be transferred to the offspring of both 
sexes. If any change has thus been effected it is almost 
certain that the different races will have been differ- 
ently modified, as each has its own standard of beauty. 
With mankind, especially with savages, many causes 
interfere with the action of sexual selection as far as the 
bodily frame is concerned. Civilised men are largely 
2 A 2 
