Morning journal and courier., 1883-05-22
The Man of the Future.

Remarkable Deductions from Accom-
plished Facts-A AForbiddinE Prophecy.
lFrom the Nineteenth Century for May.l
The man of the futnre-that mysterious
being who will look back across a dim gulf of
time upon imperfect humanity of the nine
teenth century with just such kindly and
half .incredulous scorn as we now condescend
to bestow upon our club-wielding, ape-like
ancestor-will be a toothless, hairless, slow
limbed animal, incapable of extended loco
motion His feet will have no division be-
tween the toes He will be very averse to
fighting, and will maintain his position IN the
foremost files of time to come solely upon
the strength of one or two peculiar convolu-
tions in his brain. This may seem to be q
poor prophecy; but it differs from most
prophecies in being q mere logical deduction
from accomplished facts.
The different parts of the human frame as
it existed now have been evolved or modified
by the action of the two great principles that
have always regulated the development of
species. Every organ and every ornament
that man possesses has been acquired by nat
ural or by sexual selection, and when either
of these forces Is weakened or removed, or
when the necessity for such organs or orna-
ments is no longer sufficient to counterbal-
ance the loss of the power employed IN their
production, then they commence at once to
disappear. This is the case with human
teeth The early ancestors of man were
furnished, as the male gorilla is to-day, with
magnificent grinding teeth for crushing hard
fruits, and huge CANNES for fighting with
other males for the possession of the females.
A trace of this remains in the mere powerful
dentition of savage races, who stand a short
distance nearer to our common ape-ike au-
cestor. Civilized human beings, on the 9TH
or hand, have absolutely no use for canine
teeth, which are therefore found to be small
in proportion to the civilization of their pos
SCISSORS and for the rest of the teeth they
are eminently unsuited for the work they
have to perform. This is sufficiently plain
from their early decay, and the artificial
means which have to be employed in order
to retain them even to maturity. The So
called wisdom teeth are even now being
lost. They are the last to appesr and the
first to 90, and even while we are unem-
ployed. The rest will probably follow them
two at time, and their places will be sup
piled no doubt by hardening of the gums,
which cannot fail to be incomparably more
convenient and suitable to the viands of civil
lied life.
Long hair, beard, moustache and whiskers
are all sexual ornaments acquired by man to
charm and allure the opposite sex, just as the
canine teeth were acquired to fight for sim-
ilar purpose But neither is sexual selection
so powerful now, nor are these hairy orna-
ments SO important as they used to be. Mar
riage is NO longer settled by the strength or
magnificent harness of the suitor. Wealth
will cover the bald head; intellect is more
valued than vhiskers, and the length of rent
roll counterbalanceg the shortness of
beard. A woman, too, who has scanty
supply of that ancient ''pride of woman
long hair-csn exc it out by fraud and art,
nor need she go unwcdded on that account.
Neither men nor women, therefore, VINO nap
pen to be iIl-furnished with hair are new, as
formerly, Handicapped in the race OF NE, and
unlikely to leave children to inherit their de-
fects. On the other hand they gain dis.
finct advantage at the outset, lnasmuch as no
vital force is in their case wasted In the pro-
duction of useless ornaments. There is,
moreover, a mysterious law of correlation of
Growth between the hair and the teeth.
Throughout the animal world strong and
luxurisnt hair is accompanied by regular and
durable teeth and hairless breed of dogs
exists which is equally conspicuous for the
absence of its teeth. Hence it might have
been expected that civilization would affect
the hair as much as the teeth, and infalIibly
tend to suppress all hirsute adornments as
not being sufficiently necessary to the well
fare of the individual to repay the cost of
their production. Experience confirms this