EFFECTS OF EVOLUTION ON NOSES.

Observer, Volume 6, Issue 146, 30 June 1883, Page 234

EFFECTS OF EVOLUTION ON NOSES.

- ■ :;■■■ :" <■•,.-.. .-i ..:»■■ — ---\ ■. i.:". 1 . If. the; curious reader i ,will ; run back two, or three •centuries he will find that both the ears/and/ the nose's of men and women were, as a general rule, larger and consequently more prominent than at this day.- ,>. ' >■'.'■' ■ What has. produced this decadence, if such it may be called, or, as the more artistic would have it, thia improvement ? Progress, necessarily. Remember this progress relates to the Caucasian or Aryan races, not to the Semitic or African. The Chinese or Mongolian ears and noses are perhaps what they were in the days of Confucius, and the flat noses and large ears of the negro perhaps the same as in the pre- Adamite days, for it is argued that the black man is the product of that era. The Mongolian progresses slowly, the typical Af rioan slower still — for he is . the lowest of the races-rrwhile the Caucasian or Aryan has progressed with astonishing rapidity in physical beauty, intellectual strength, and racial mastery. Large eara and large probosces are evidences of an alliance with the animal kingdom, and. if evolution brings smaller projections and more symmetrical ones, it , is proof that men and women are getting farther away from animalism. Two or three centuries have certainly worked a great change in both the ears and noses of white human, beings. Most women now have small, pear-shaped, artistically rimmed ears, and small, well-formed noses. Moat men, too, are similarly favoured. The question is : What will bo the form of each projection three or' five centuries hence at the preceding and present rate of progress in evolution ? The law of nature seems to be, first, to form a sort of monstrosity, and then gradually give it beauty of proportion and faco. A. baby is an example. If this be the rule, then ages will elapse ere the Chinaman will have a respectable looking nose, or the flat proboscis of the African will assume anything like a pleasant look to Aryans. As for the Aryans themselves, , there must be a finishing touch by nature to ears and noses, and then both will remain, generally at least, stationary as things of artistic beauty. How long no man can say.