A REMARKABLE ANTICIPATION, ETC. 17 
perceive an advantage in the varieties of form, and an 
adaptation of particular breeds to external circumstances.” 
He then gives numerous examples—the small active cattle 
and horses which are found in mountainous countries, the 
larger forms which flourish on fertile plains; the various 
breeds of the hog which are believed to hold “a particular 
relation to the localities in which they are placed”; the 
change of a thick fleece into a thin coat when certain breeds 
of sheep are transported to the tropics. “On considering 
these and analogous phenomena, we can scarcely avoid con- 
cluding that the variation of animals proceeds according to 
certain laws, by which the structure is adapted to the 
necessity of local circumstances.” 
This statement looks at first sight very much like 
natural selection. It is clear however that the writer held 
a view similar to that which has been termed “self- 
adaptation” by some modern writers, viz., that external 
influences act on the organism in such a manner as to 
evoke directly a favourable response. 
Examples of similar adaptation are then found among the 
races of man. The skin of black races is considered to be 
a protection against the effect of heat; the native African 
races can multiply in localities where a white population 
cannot maintain its numbers, while negroes are unable to 
establish themselves in northern latitudes. From these and 
many other instances, it appears that ‘“‘in mankind, as in 
some other races, particular varieties are adapted by consti- 
tution and physical peculiarities to particular local situations”. 
The section finally concludes with the following para- 
graph: “ These remarks, if they are well founded, serve to 
illustrate the doctrine of variation, or deviation, in the races 
of animals in general, and they seem to lead us to the con- 
clusion, that this is not merely an accidental phenomenon, 
but a part of the provision of nature for furnishing to each 
region an appropriate stock of inhabitants, or for modifying 
the structure and constitution of species, in such a way as 
to produce races fitted for each mode and condition of 
existence. A great part of this plan of local adaptation 
appears to have been accomplished by the original modifi- 
