Chap. IV.l MANNER OF DEVELOPMENT. m 



Fuesrians on the eastern and western shares of their 

 country, where the means of subsistence are very dif- 

 ferent, it is scarcely possible to avoid the conclusion that 

 better food and greater comfort do influence stature. 

 But the preceding statements show how difficult it is 

 to arrive at any precise result. Dr. Beddoe has lately 

 proved that, with the inhabitants of Britain, residence in 

 town and certain occupations have a deteriorating in- 

 fluence on height ; and he infers that the result is to a 

 certain extent inherited, as is likewise the case in the 

 United States. Dr. Beddoe further believes that wherever 

 a " race attains its maximum of physical development, it 

 rises highest in energy and moral vigor." 18 



Whether external conditions produce any other direct 

 effect on man is not known. It might have been expected 

 that differences of climate would have had a marked in- 

 fluence, as the lungs and kidneys are brought into fuller 

 activity under a low temperature, and the liver and skin 

 under a high one. 19 It was formerly thought that the 

 color of the skin and the character of the hair were de- 

 termined by light or heat ; and although it can hardly be 

 denied that some effect is thus produced, almost all ob- 

 servers now agree that the effect has been very small, 

 even after exposure during many ages. But this subject 

 will be more properly discussed when we treat of the dif- 

 ferent races of mankind. With our domestic animals 

 there are grounds for believing that cold and damp direct- 

 ly affect the growth of the hair ; but I have not met with 

 any evidence on this head in the case of man. 



vol. v. 1847, pp. 145, 283. Also Godron, 'Do l'Espece,' torn. ii. p. 289. 

 There is also a remarkable difference in appearance between the closely- 

 allied Hindoos inhabiting the Upper Ganges and Bengal ; see Elphin- 

 Btone's 'History of India,' vol. i. p. 324. 



13 Memoirs, ' Anthropolog. Soc' vol. iii. 1867-'69, pp. 5G1, 565, 567. 



19 Dr. Brakenridge, ' Theory of Diathesis,' 'Medical Times,' June 19 

 and July 17, 1869. 



