178 A REMARKABLE ANTICIPATION OF 



cases in which races have completely changed in colour 

 after removal to a different climate he explains by 

 a mixture of breed ; and points out that ' it is easy to 

 find examples of an opposite tendency, and to show 

 that the original hue has been preserved. . . .' Thus 

 he brings forward the instances of the descendants of 

 English colonists in the West Indies and Spanish in 

 South America who 'remain as fair as their European 

 ancestors', when there has been no intermarriage with 

 other races. ' That this assertion is correct, I am con- 

 vinced,' he says, ' by the result of repeated inquiries.' 

 In the East the same results are found, although the 

 migration of white races into hot climates took place 

 at far earlier dates. Thus amongst other examples he 

 mentions that of the 'white or Jerusalem Jews' who 

 are believed to have migrated to the Malabar coast in 

 the year 490 a.d., and whose living descendants are 

 'said to resemble the European Jews in features and 

 in complexion '. 



The converse ' experiment of transplanting black races 

 into northern climates ' has not been carried on for so 

 long a period, but Dr. Prichard points out that ' several 

 generations have produced little or no alteration in the 

 complexion of Negroes in the United States and in 

 other temperate climates '. It is indeed stated that 

 ' the domestic Negroes who are protected from the heat 

 of the sun by more clothing, and who pass their time in 

 sheltered houses, are of a darker complexion than the 

 slaves who labour half naked in the fields '. 



Section iii. This most significant and remarkable part 

 of the work is headed (p. 536), Laws of the Animal 

 Economy in regard to the Hereditary Transmission of 

 peculiarities of Structure : the brief title at the head of 

 the pages runs, Laws of Nature in Hereditary Trans- 

 mission. This discussion, which forestalls by more than 

 half a century the considerations and conclusions of 

 recent writers and especially of Professor Weismann, 

 is opened by the statement that physiological writers 

 have often inquired ' what peculiarities of structure are 

 liable to be transmitted by parents to their offspring, 



