0.14 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



Lastly, Mr. Macnamara states * that the low and de- 

 graded inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, on the eastern 

 side of the Gulf of Bengal, are " eminently susceptible to 

 any change of climate; in fact, take them away from their 

 island homes, and they are almost certain to die, and that 

 independently of diet or extraneous influences. " He further 

 states that the inhabitants of the Valley of Nepal, which is 

 extremely hot in summer, and also the various hill-tribes 

 of India, suffer from dysentery and fever when on the 

 plains; and they die if they attempt to pass the whole year 

 there. 



We thus see that many of the wilder races of man are 

 apt to suffer much in health when subjected to changed 

 conditions or habits of life and not exclusively from being 

 transported to a new climate. Mere alterations in habits, 

 which do not appear injurious in themselves, seem to have this 

 same effect; and in several cases the children are particularly 

 liable to suffer. It has often been said, as Mr. Macnamara 

 remarks, that man can resist with impunity the greatest 

 diversities of climate and other changes; but this is true 

 only of the civilized races. Man in his wild condition 

 seems to be in this respect almost as susceptible as his near- 

 est allies, the anthropoid apes, which have never yet sur- 

 vived long, when removed from their native country. 



Lessened fertility from changed conditions, as in the case 

 of the Tasmanians, Maories, Sandwich Islanders, and 

 apparently the Australians, is still more interesting than 

 their liability to ill-health and death; for even a slight 

 degree of infertility, combined with those other causes 

 which tend to check the increase of every population, would 

 sooner or later lead to extinction. The diminution of fertility 

 may be explained in some cases by the profligacy of the 

 women (as until lately with the Tahitians), but Mr. Fenton 

 has shown that this explanation by no means suffices with 

 the New Zealanders, nor does it with the Tasmanians. 



Rusclienberger is quoted by Bonwick, "Last of the Tasmanians," 

 1870, p. 378. Bishop is quoted by Sir E. Belcher, " Voyage Hound 

 the World," 1843, vol. i, p. 272. I owe the ensus of the several 

 years to the kindness of Mr. Coan, at the request of Dr. Youmans, of 

 New York; and in most cases I have compared the Youmans figures 

 with those given in several of the above-named works. I have 

 omitted the census for 1850, as I have seen two widely different num- 

 bers given. 



* " The Indian Medical Gazette," Nov. 1, 1871, p. 240. 



