IX 
LIMITS OF NATURAL SELECTION IN MAN 
195 
The constant Absence of Hair from certain 'parts of Man’s 
Body a remarkable Phenomenon 
In man the hairy covering of the body has almost totally 
disappeared, and, what is very remarkable, it has disappeared 
more completely from the back than from any other part of 
the body. Bearded and beardless races alike have the back 
smooth, and even when a considerable quantity of hair 
appears on the limbs and breast, the back, and especially the 
spinal region, is absolutely free, thus completely reversing 
the characteristics of all other mammalia. The Ainos of the 
Kurile Islands and Japan are said to be a hairy race ; but 
Mr. Bickmore, who saw some of them, and described them in 
a paper read before the Ethnological Society, gives no details 
as to where the hair was most abundant, merely stating gene- 
rally that “their chief peculiarity is their great abundance 
of hair, not only on the head and face, but over the whole 
body.” This might very well be said of any man who had 
hairy limbs and breast, unless it was specially stated that his 
back was hairy, which is not done in this case. The hairy 
family in Birmah have, indeed, hair on the back rather longer 
than on the breast, thus reproducing the true mammalian 
character, but they have still longer hair on the face, fore- 
head, and inside the ears, which is quite abnormal ; and the 
fact that their teeth are all very imperfect shows that this is 
a case of monstrosity rather than one of true reversion to the 
ancestral type of man before he lost his hairy covering. 
Savage Man feels the Want of this Hairy Covering 
We must now inquire if we have any evidence to show, 
or any reason to believe, that a hairy covering to the back 
would be in any degree hurtful to savage man, or to man in 
any stage of his progress from his lower animal form ; and 
if it were merely useless, could it have been so entirely 
and completely removed as not to be continually reappearing 
in mixed races ? Let us look to savage man for some light 
on these points. One of the most common habits of savages 
is to use some covering for the back and shoulders, even when 
they have none on any other part of the body. The early 
voyagers observed with surprise that the Tasmanians, both 
