The Descent of Man

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 on the head;
and this indicates that our semi-human progenitors
were not furnished with long tresses,
which must therefore have been a late acquisition.
This is likewise indicated by the extraordinary
difference in the length of the hair in the
different races; in the negro the hair forms a
mere curly mat; with us it is of great length,