PDF - Wallace Online

LIMITS OF NATURAL SELECTION IN MAN 195The constant Absence of Hair from certain parts of Man'sBody a remarkable PhenomenonIn man the hairy covering of the body has almost totallydisappeared, and, what is very remarkable, it has disappearedmore completely from the back than from any other part ofthe body. Bearded and beardless races alike have the backsmooth, and even when a considerable quantity of hairappears on the limbs and breast, the back, and especially thespinal region, is absolutely free, thus completely reversingthe characteristics of all other mammalia. The Ainos of theKurile Islands and Japan are said to be' a hairy race ;butMr. Bickmore, who saw some of them, and described them ina paper read before the Ethnological Society, gives no detailsas to where the hair was most abundant, merely stating generallythat "their chief peculiarity is their great abundanceof hair, not only on the head and face, but over the wholebody." This might very well be said of any man who hadhairy limbs and breast, unless it was specially stated that hisback was hairy, which is not done in this case. The hairyfamily in Birmah have, indeed, hair on the back rather longerthan on the breast, thus reproducing the true mammaliancharacter, but they have still longer hair on the face, forehead,and inside the ears, which is quite abnormal and;thefact that their teeth are all very imperfect shows that this isa case of monstrosity rather than one of true reversion to theancestral type of man before he lost his hairy covering.Savage Man feels the Want of this Hairy CoveringWe must now inquire if we have any evidence to show,or any reason to believe, that a hairy covering to the backwould be in any degree hurtful to savage man, or to man inany stage of his progress from his lower animal form and;if it were merely useless, could it have been so entirelyand completely removed as not to be continually reappearingin mixed races ? Let us look to savage man for some lighton these points.One of the most common habits of savagesis to use some covering for the back and shoulders, even whenthey have none on any other part of the body. The earlyvoyagers observed with surprise that the Tasmanians, both