beards 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. In
those Quadrumana in which the male has a larger beard than that of the
female, it is fully developed only at maturity, just as with mankind;
and it is possible that only the later stages of development have been
retained by man. In opposition to this view of the retention of the
beard from an early period is the fact of its great variability in
different races, and even within the same race; for this indicates
reversion, long lost characters being very apt to vary on
re-appearance.
Nor must we overlook the part which sexual selection may have played in
later times; for we know that with savages the men of the beardless
races take infinite pains in eradicating every hair from their faces as
something odious, whilst the men of the bearded races feel the greatest
pride in their beards. The women, no doubt, participate in these
feelings, and if so sexual selection can hardly have failed to have
effected something in the course of later times. It is also possible
that the long-continued habit of eradicating the hair may have produced
an inherited effect. Dr. Brown-Sequard has shewn that if certain
animals are operated on in a particular manner, their offspring are
affected. Further evidence could be given of the inheritance of the
effects of mutilations; but a fact lately ascertained by Mr. Salvin
(26. On the tail-feathers of Motmots, Proceedings of the Zoological
Society, 1873, p. 429.) has a more direct bearing on the present
question; for he has shewn that the motmots, which are known habitually
to bite off the barbs of the two central tail-feathers, have the barbs
of these feathers naturally somewhat reduced. (27. Mr. Sproat has
suggested ( Scenes and Studies of Savage Life, 1868, p. 25) this same
view. Some distinguished ethnologists, amongst others M. Gosse of
Geneva, believe that artificial modifications of the skull tend to be
inherited.) Nevertheless, with mankind the habit of eradicating the
beard and the hairs on the body would probably not have arisen until
these had already become by some means reduced.
It is difficult to form any judgment as to how the hair on the head
became developed to its present great length in many races. Eschricht
(28. Ueber die Richtung, ibid. s. 40.) states that in the human
foetus the hair on the face during the fifth month is longer than that
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