Address to the British Association 201 



the Negro pelvis differs from the European, and the same is 

 the case with the proportions of the Hmbs ; while the skulls 

 of the Eskimo have the largest and narrowest nasal aperture 

 of all races, being in this respect the very opposite to the 

 Australians. The Eskimo have migrated eastwards, not 

 reaching the south of Greenland till the fourteenth century, 

 and the race characters are most marked in the most 

 easterly tribes. These facts were brought forward by Pro- 

 fessor Flower in his Hunterian lectures for the present j^ear/ 

 when he said that the characters of this peculiar race ' must 

 be attributed to those gradual modifications produced through 

 causes at present little understood, by which most of the 

 striking variations met with in the human species have been 

 brought about — modifications more strongly expressed the 

 more completely isolated the race has become, and the 

 farther removed from its original centre of distribution.' I 

 think, then, that though we have not data for conclusively 

 answering the question as to how far migration (together 

 with isolation) may be necessary for specific genesis, it is 

 certain that it is of very great efficacy and importance, and 

 that credit is justly due to Buff on for his early appreciation 

 of its importance. 



The next question to which I would advert is that con- 

 cerning the direct action upon organisms of the external 

 conditions which surround them. 



Buffon's belief was^ that changes of specific form were 

 brought about by change of temperature and climatic change 

 generally, as well as by change of food. 



The curious efiects of stimulating food on colour — as of 



1 The lecturer also said ; ' The large size of the brain of all the hyper- 

 borean races, Lapps as well as Eskimo, seems not necessarily to be connected 

 with intellectual development, but may have some other explanation not at 

 present apparent.' I would suggest that in this case— as in the large brains 

 of Cetaceans — it may be due to the need in their climate of generating much 

 heat to sustain the necessary temperature of the body. 



2 Op. cit., vol. xiv. p. 317. 



