Contributions to the theory of natural selection. A series of essays ... By Alfred Russel Wallace ...

AS APPLIED TO A1i. 345
mana, and by this long persistence it must have acquirecl such a powerful hereditary tendency, that we
should expect it to reappear continually even after it
had been abolished by ages of the most rigid selection;
and we may feel sure that it never could have been
completely abolished under the law of natural selection, unless it had become so positively injurious as to
lead to the almost invariable extinction of individuals
possessing it.
Tlhe constant absence of Hair from certain parqts of
31~an's Body a remarkable Phenomenon.
In man the hairy covering. of the body has almost
totally disappeared, and, what is very remarkable, it
has disappeared more completely from the back than
from any other part of the body. Bearded and beardless races alike have the back smooth, and even when
a considerable quantity of hair appears on the limbs
and breast, the back, and especially the spinal region,
is absolutely free, thus completely reversing the characteristics of all other mammalia. The Ainos of the Kurile
Islands and Japan are said to be a hairy race; but Mr.
Bickmore, who saw some of them, and described them
in a paper read before the Ethnological Society, gives
no details as to where the hair was most abundant,
merely stating generally, that "; their chief peculiarity
is their great abundance of hair, not only on the head
and face, but over the whole body." This might very
well be said of any man who had hairy limbs and
breast, unless it was specially stated that his back was