Although the observations concerning hairiness of body as an index of
vigor, whether sexual or only generally physical, are so ancient, until
recent years no attempts have been made to demonstrate on a large scale
whether there is actually a correlation between hairiness and sexual or
general development of the body. Some importance, therefore, attaches to
Ammon's careful observations of many thousand conscripts in Baden. These
observations fully justify this ancient belief, since they show that on
the one hand the size of the testicles, and on the other hand girth of
chest and stature, are correlated with hairiness of body.
Ammon's observations were made on nearly 4000 conscripts of the
age of 20. From the point of view of the hairy system he divided
them, into four classes:--
I. To which 6.1 per cent, of the men belonged, with smooth
bodies.
II. Including 25.3 per cent., only slight hairiness.
III. 53.8 per cent., more developed hairy system, but belly,
breast and back smooth.
IV. 14.7 per cent., hair all over body.
V. 0.1 per cent., extreme cases of hairiness.
The beardless were 12.1 per cent., those with no axillary hair 9
per cent.
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