Thus, in man, as in animals, the aphorism is verified which was formulated by Linnæus in regard to plants:—_nimium ne crede colori_. III. I shall not dwell at any length upon the modifications of the hair and villosities. They are much more apparent than real in man. Whether fair or black, fine and of a woolly appearance, as in the Negro, or coarse and stiff, as in the yellow and red races; whether the transverse section is circular as in the Yellow race, oval, as in the White, or elliptic, as in the Negro, _the hair remains hair_. The woolly fleece of our sheep, on the contrary, is in part of Africa, replaced by a short and smooth hair. In America the same is the case with the sheep of the Madeleine whenever they are left unshorn; and on the other hand, in the high plains of the Andes, the wild boars acquire a kind of coarse wool. The practice of certain natives of shaving off all hair has made some travellers believe in the existence of human races which are entirely hairless; the error has however been recognised. All men possess hair in the normal places. Hairless dogs and horses are, however, known to exist. In America, where the oxen have a European origin, the hair commences with becoming very fine and few in number with the _pelones_, and disappears entirely with the _calongos_; and if the latter do not increase in number, it is due to their being systematically destroyed from an idea that they are a degenerate race. It is evident that in these several respects the variations are more extensive in animals than in man. IV. This fact becomes more evident when it is possible to substitute exact measurements for merely general ideas, and to compare figures. The variations in size present this advantage, and it is interesting to compare from this point of view the extremes of some animal races with the extremes admitted in human groups. +-----------+--------------+-----------------+----------------+------+ | SPECIES. | RACE. | | DIFFERENCE. |RATIO.| +-----------+--------------+-----------------+----------------+------+ | | | m. ft. in. m. ft. in. | | |Dogs | Small Spaniel| 0·305 1 } | | | (length) | St. Bernard | 1·328 3 4·27 } 1·025 2 4·27 | 0·2 | |Rabbits | Niçard | 0·20 7·87 } | | | (length) | Bélier | 0·60 1 11·62 }0·40 1 3·74 | 0·3 | |Horse | Shetland | 0·76 2 5·92 } | | | (height) | Dray Horse | 1·80 5 10·85 } 1·04 3 4·94 | 0·4 | |Sheep | | 0·325 1 0·79 } | | | (height) | | 1·040 3 4·94 }0·715 2 4·15 | 0·3 | |Man (mean | Bosjesman | 1·37 4 5·93 } | | | height) | Patagonian | 1·72 5 8·11 } 0·35 1 2·18 | 0·8 | +-----------+--------------+-----------------+----------------+------+