114 THE DESCENT OF MAN. [Fart L 



Bight and long-sight certainly tend to be inherited. 28 The 

 inferiority of Europeans, in comparison with savages, in 

 eye-sight and in the other senses, is no doubt the accumu- 

 lated and transmitted effect of lessened use during many 

 generations ; for Rengger 29 states that he has repeatedly 

 observed Europeans, who had been brought up and spent 

 their whole lives with the wild Indians, who nevertheless 

 did not equal them in the sharpness of their senses. The 

 same naturalist observes that the cavities in the skull for 

 the reception of the several sense-organs are larger in the 

 American aborigines than in Europeans ; and this ' no 

 doubt indicates a corresponding difference in the dimen- 

 sions of the organs themselves. Blumenbach has also re- 

 marked on the large size of the nasal cavities in the skulls 

 of the American aborigines, and connects this fact with 

 their remarkably acute power of smell. The Mongolians 

 of the plains of Northern Asia, according to Pallas, have 

 wonderfully perfect senses ; and Prichard believes that the 

 great breadth of their skulls across the zygomas follows 

 from their highly-developed sense-organs. 30 



The Quechua Indians inhabit the lofty plateaux of 

 Peru, and Alcide d'Orbigny states 31 that from continually 

 breathing a highly rarefied atmosphere they have acquired 

 chests and lungs of extraordinary dimensions. The cells, 



28 ' The Variation of Animals under Domestication,' vol. ii. p. 8. 



29 ' Saugethiere von Paraguay,' s. 8, 10. I have had good opportuni- 

 ties for observing the extraordinary power of eyesight in the Fuegians. 

 See also Lawrence ('Lectures on Physiology,' etc., 1822, p. 404) on this 

 same subject. M. Giraud-Teulon has recently collected ('Revue des 

 Cours Scientifiques,' 18*70, p. 625) a large and vrluable body of evidence 

 proving that the cause of short-sight, "Vest le travail assidu, de pres." 



30 Prichard, ' Phys. Hist, of Mankind,' on the authority of Blumen- 

 bach, vol i. 1851, p. 311 ; for the statement by Pallas, vol. iv. 1844, p, 

 40V. 



81 Quoted by Prichard, ' Researches into the Phys. Hist, of Mankind, 

 vol. v. p. 463. 



