Chap. XX. 
BEAKDS. 
379 
islands of the Japan archipelago. But the laws of in- 
heritance are so complex than we can seldom under- 
stand their action. If the greater hairiness of certain 
races be the result of reversion, unchecked by any form 
of selection, the extreme variability of this character, 
even within the limits of the same race, ceases to be 
remarkable. 
With respect to the beard, if we turn to our best 
guide, namely the Quadrumana, we find beards equally 
well developed in both sexes of many species, but in 
others, either confined to the males, or more developed 
in them than in the females. From this fact, and from 
the curious arrangement, as well as the bright colours, of 
the hair about the heads of many monkeys, it is highly 
probable, as before explained, that the males first 
acquired their beards as an ornament through sexual 
selection, transmitting them in most cases, in an equal or 
nearly equal degree, to their offspring of both sexes. 
We know from Eschricht^^ that with mankind, the 
female as well as the male foetus is furnished with much 
hair on the face, especially round the mouth; and this 
indicates that we are descended from a progenitor, of 
which both sexes were bearded. It appears therefore 
at first sight probable that man has retained his beard 
from a very early period, whilst woman lost her beard 
at the same time when her body became almost com- 
j)letely divested of hair. Even the colour of the beard 
with mankind seems to have been inherited from an 
ape-like progenitor; for when there is any difference 
in tint between the hair of the head and the beard, the 
latter is lighter coloured in all monkeys and in man. 
There is less improbability in the men of the bearded 
“Ueber die Kicbtung der Haare am Mensclilichen Korper,” in 
Muller’s ‘ Arcliiv fiir Anat. mid Phys.’ 1837, s. 40. 
