8o 
Beauty in the Eyes of an Evolutionist . [February 9 
would doubtless say that a rosy complexion charms, because 
we learn to associate health with it in our minds. But I 
think it vastly more probable that the love of a fine com- 
plexion is purely instinctive, and that we should equally 
think it beautiful if we had been taught that it was a sign, 
not of good, but of ill health. In fact, those who in past 
generations had a good eye for the right tint have left many 
descendants (inheriting the taste), and those who were in- 
different to it fewer, if any. 
The physiological reason why the beautiful rosy or pink 
complexion is admired is this : — The red corpuscles of the 
arterial blood give the colour; and it is they which carry the 
indispensable oxygen through the arteries to the parts of 
the body requiring it, so that the good complexion witnesses 
to the goodness of the respiratory system. If the blood 
were colourless, and the cheeks were reddened by an effusion 
of a vermilion liquor, gushing from special glands, and 
serving no other purpose than that of embellishing the 
countenance, the argument would of course fall to the 
ground. But inasmuch as the colour is evidence that the 
system is well furnished with that gas upon the ceaseless 
supply of which all bodily and mental activity — life itself — 
immediately depends from moment to moment, it appears 
clear that the physical fact creates the beauty. 
It is to be noted that Natural Selection has given to 
woman an uncontrollable knack of showing her blood as 
much as possible when a favoured admirer stands before her, 
her blushes saying — “ See, here is oxygen-laden blood. Do 
you see these red corpuscles ? What a respiratory system 
your sons by me would inherit !” It is not without signifi- 
cance, too, that this blushing, though involuntary, is (as the 
Commander of the Faithful is told by his wife in one of the 
“Arabian Nights Tales ”) a proof that she loves her male 
admirer. The red corpuscles are made to attract his atten- 
tion in proportion to the degree in which the match is 
instinctively seen by her to be desirable, with reference to the 
viability of her offspring. The blush is the more advan- 
tageous from the fact that moonlight is proper to courting — 
a light in which the cheeks look more pallid than in the 
light of day. 
The much-admired “vermeil-tinctured lip ” and “ bright 
eyes” tell of the same desirable physical quality, namely a 
good circulation of healthy blood. 
If space permitted it might be shown that there is a 
general correlation between the attractions of either sex, and 
such good physical qualities as would tend, through the 
