Nor can conceptions of perfection drawn from the human face and body be extended to the whole of man’s organisation. A glance at some of the organic systems will make this plain. The human skin is covered with little hairs, the history of which is interesting. In one stage of embryonic life nearly the whole of the body is clad with hairs. This covering is known as the _lanugo_, and consists of strands of hair, disposed very regularly all over the body, save on the nose and the hands and feet. There is no doubt but that this is functionless, and is no more than an inheritance from the old ape-like condition. Later on, it falls out and is replaced by the ordinary downy covering of the body. In adult life, and particularly in old age, the hairs of the second coat tend to grow very long and so to form a covering that is neither beautiful nor in the least degree useful. We may take this as a first example of a disharmonious condition in the human body. Hairs, incapable of protecting the body from cold, survive merely as an ancestral relic and may become even harmful. The human skin is constantly exposed to the microbes in dust; and the follicles of the hairs, in which these microbes lodge, form receptacles very favourable to their multiplication. In the hollows of the follicles, certain microbes, as for instance some of the _Staphylococci_, multiply rapidly and give rise to acne and to pimples. The process may even go the length of producing a chronic skin-disease very unpleasant and even dangerous if it be associated with suppuration. In the human race, intelligence, that is to say, the activity of the brain, supplants many other functions, and man is able to protect himself against the inclemencies of weather much better than his furry ancestors were capable of doing. He is able to do this through his invention of clothing which may be varied with the nature of the weather. But the obstinate laws of inheritance burden him with a covering of hair, not only useless but frequently harmful. And this is only one example among many.