296 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



affected by a change of climate, and, he might have added, 

 conflicts equally strongly with his argument in section iii., 

 that acquired characters are not transmitted. However, he 

 is so fascinated by the view of a local influence directly pro- 

 ducing adaptation that he throws over much that he had 

 previously argued for in a most convincing manner. Thus 

 he suggests that races of men when removed into another 

 climate may not change because they are defended from the 

 local influences by living in houses, adhering to their old 

 foods, etc., also that the facts about the black and white 

 Jews of Cochin, from which he argued in section ii. that 

 climate produces no permanent effect on the race, may be 

 insufficiently known. 



It is strange that one who reasoned so acutely in section 

 iii. did not seem to see that the following view if proved to be 

 true would undermine the whole of the argument : " It may 

 however be true, that particular varieties, once established 

 in the stock, and transmitted for many generations, though 

 originally resulting in a certain degree from the influence of 

 local causes, will nevertheless continue permanent, even 

 long after the race has been removed from the climate in 

 which they originated ". 



In spite of this logical flaw, which is in itself of much 

 interest, inasmuch as it probably explains the suppression 

 of Prichard's original views in later works, sufficient has 

 been said to prove that the author was one of the most 

 remarkable and clear-sighted of the predecessors of Darwin 

 and Wallace. 



E. B. POULTON. 



