The Descent of Man

have seen the possibility of its selection
through its superior beauty or the health attaching
to superior cleanliness.") Nor, as shewn
in a former chapter, have we any evidence that
this can be due to the direct action of climate, or
that it is the result of correlated development.
The absence of hair on the body is to a certain
extent a secondary sexual character; for in all
parts of the world women are less hairy than
men. Therefore we may reasonably suspect that
this character has been gained through sexual
selection. We know that the faces of several
species of monkeys, and large surfaces at the
posterior end of the body of other species, have
been denuded of hair; and this we may safely
attribute to sexual selection, for these surfaces
are not only vividly coloured, but sometimes,
as with the male mandrill and female rhesus,
much more vividly in the one sex than in the
other, especially during the breeding-season. I
am informed by Mr. Bartlett that, as these ani-