110 THE DESCENT OF MAN. [Pari I. 



as far as the innumerable structures are concerned, which 

 are adapted for special ends. There can, however, be no 

 doubt that changed conditions induce an almost indefinite 

 amount of fluctuating variability, by which the whole or- 

 ganization is rendered in some 'degree plastic. 



In the United States, above 1,000,000 soldiers, who 

 served in the late war, were measured, and the States in 

 which they were born and reared recorded. 16 From this 

 astonishing number of observations it is proved that local 

 influences of some kind act directly on stature ; and we 

 further learn that " the State where the physical growth 

 has in great measure taken place, and the State of birth, 

 which indicates the ancestry, seem to exert a marked in- 

 fluence on the stature." For instance, it is established, 

 " that residence in the Western States, during the years 

 of growth, tends to produce increase of stature." On the 

 other hand, it is certain that with sailors, their manner of 

 life delays growth, as shown " by the great difference be- 

 tween the statures of soldiers and sailors at the ages of 

 seventeen and eighteen years." Mr. B. A. Gould en- 

 deavored to ascertain the nature of the influences which 

 thus act on stature; but he arrived only at negative 

 results, namely, that they did not relate to climate, the 

 elevation of the land, soil, or even "in any controlling 

 degree " to the abundance or need of the comforts of life. 

 This latter conclusion is directly opposed to that arrived 

 at by Villerme from the statistics of the height of the con- 

 scripts in different parts of France. When we compare 

 the differences in stature between the Polynesian chiefs 

 and the lower orders within the same islands, or between 

 the inhabitants of the fertile volcanic and low barren 

 coral islands of the same ocean, 17 or again between the 



16 'Investigations in Military and Anthrop. Statistics,' etc., 1869, by 

 B. A. Gould, pp. 93, 101, 126, 131, 134. 



17 For the Polynesians, see Prichard's • Physical Hist, of Mankind,' 



