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inhabitants of Central America. In the moist climate of 

 Cuba the Spaniards show a tendency to corpulency, whereas 

 in Mexico they are thin, like the Arabs. Similar differences 

 are seen in all of the domestic animals under similar con- 

 ditions. 



Mr. J. H. Abbot thought that moral causes had a very 

 powerful influence in producing the proverbial thinness of 

 the New Englander. In no part of the world was there 

 such general mental activity. 



Mr. Desor mentioned the circumstance, that the voija- 

 geurs of the great western lakes and rivers are in the habit 

 of eating very large quantities of sugar daily. 



Dr. C. T. Jackson stated in confirmation, that the men 

 of Dr. Locke's party, when he was engaged in his geologi- 

 cal survey, were discontented because they received but 

 one pint of sugar each, daily. Sugar has great heat-gene- 

 rating power, particularly grape sugar. Dr. Jackson had 

 himself found, on a certain occasion when he and his sur- 

 veying party were suffering greatly from cold, that eating a 

 few raisins was suflicient to impart a glow to the whole 

 system. The effect was probably due to the grape sugar 

 they contained. 



In answer to a question, whether he had noticed diffe- 

 rences in the inhabitants of different parts of North Ame- 

 rica proportional to the different degrees of humidity in the 

 atmosphere. Prof. Rogers replied that he had. The in- 

 habitants of New Brunswick, which has a moist climate, 

 are fatter than New Englanders generally. In travelling 

 by the western steamboats, more stout men are usually to 

 be found among the passengers than are seen among the 

 same number of people in New England. The descend- 

 ants of the Scotch and Irish in Virginia and the Carolinas, 

 are much thinner than those living in Florida, or on the 

 shores of the Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Fundy. 



Mr. Storer suggested, that the free use of ardent spirits 



