hcconiing hereditary Marls of DiJIlnSlioft, 3 



England, that when horfes are continually docked, and both 

 ftailions and marcs kept fo for many generations, the foals, 

 at laft, come into the world with Ibme articulations fewer 

 in the tail. Buffon * has enlarged pretty fully on this fub- 

 jeot, and endeavoured to prove, by the help of anatomy, that 

 the callofities on the breaft-bone and knees of the camel are 

 merely the confequence of their fubjeftion, and the force by 

 tvhich thefe animals of burden, as is well known, are obliged 

 to kneel down; and as the young camels, when brought 

 forth, have callofities of the like kind, he gives this as a 

 proof of the hereditary tranfmiffion of fuch variations pro- 

 duced by art. 



IT. Lijlanccs among the Human Species. 

 • Cardan t fpcaks of the well known ancient cuftom of 

 the Peruvians of Puerto f''"iego, w^ho prefled between boards 

 the heads of their new-born children. This cullom, how- 

 ever, became afterwards like a fecond nature; fo that, in the 

 courfc of time, children were brought into the world with 

 head.-: formed in that fing\ilar manner: and Cardan exprefsly 

 fays, that this flatnefs f)f the head was originally the work of 

 art, and not of nature. Conjhit igitur, to uie his own ex- 

 preflions, hnmanam furmam viultis modis •varmri) turn arfey 

 turn dhtturna Jncci-JJione. Hippocrates, in his work upon air, 

 water and climate, mentions fomething of the like kind in 

 regard to the Macroerphu/i, a people on the borders of the 

 Black Sea, who preifcd the head.s of their new-born children; 

 and thiri prartice repeated, through many generations, pro- 

 duced at length an hereditary diflinftion ; fo that the chil- 

 dren were born with heads of a particular form. "At firlt,'* 

 fays he I, " the practice of the country feems to have bcca 

 the caufe of this c(;nformation ; but cuftom ailerwards be- 



' Iliftuire Naturdle, vol. xi. 

 t V.il. iii. |). 1G2 of Spon's cJition of his works. 

 J Tliis palHigc is t'randritid from ihc orij^inal in Charderl's edition^ 

 vol. vi. p. loi. 



B 7, came 



