It is at puberty that all the hair on the body, except that on the head, begins to develop; indeed, the very word “puberty” has reference to this growth as the most obvious sign of the whole process.  When castration takes place at an early age all this development of pubescent hair is arrested.  When the primary sexual organs are undeveloped the sexual hair is also undeveloped, as in a case, recorded by Plant,[166] of a girl with rudimentary uterus and ovaries who had little or no axillary and pubic hair, although the hair of the head was long and strong.[167]

The pseudo-Michael Scot among the Signa mulieris calidae naturae et quae coit libenter stated that her hair, both on the head and body, is thick and coarse and crisp, and Della Porta, the greatest of the physiognomists, said that thickness of hair in women meant wantonness.  Venette, in his Generation de l’Homme, remarked that men who have much hair on the body are most amorous.  At a more recent period Roubaud has said that pubic hair in its quantity, color and curliness is an index of genital energy.  A poor pilous system, on the other hand, Roubaud regarded as a probable though not an irrefragable proof of sexual frigidity in women.  “In the cold woman the pilous system is remarkable for the languor of its vitality; the hairs are fair, delicate, scarce and smooth, while in ardent natures there are little curly tufts about the temples.” (Traite de l’Impuissance, pp. 124, 523.) Martineau declared (Lecons sur les Deformations Vulvaires, p. 40) that “the more developed the genital organs the more abundant the hair covering them; abundance of hair appears to be in relation to the perfect development of the organs.”  Tardieu described the typically erotic woman as very hairy.

Bergh found that among 2200 young Danish prostitutes those who showed an unusual extension and amount of pubic hair included several women who were believed to be libidinous in a very high degree. (Bergh, “Symbolae,” etc., Hospitalstidende, August, 1894.) Moraglia, again, in Italy, in describing various women, mostly prostitutes, of unusually strong sexual proclivities, repeatedly notes very thick hair, with down on the face. (Archivio di Psichiatria, vol. xvi, fasc. iv-v.)

Marro, also, in Italy found that abundance of hair and down is especially marked in women who are guilty of infanticide (as also Pasini has found), though criminal women generally, in his experience, tend to have abnormally abundant hair. (Caratteri del Delinquenti, cap.  XXII.) Lombroso finds that prostitutes generally tend to be hairy (Donna Delinquente, p. 320.)

A lad of 14, guilty of numerous crimes of violence having a sexual source, is described by Arthur Macdonald in America as having hair on the chest as well as all over the pubes. (A.  Macdonald, Archives de L’Anthropologie Criminelle, January, 1893, p. 55.) The association