THEIR HEIGHT, FORM, AND STRENGTH. 29 



the Australian savage. No person has examined 

 such a degenerate Irish skull, and shown how far it 

 deviates from other Irish skulls, or approaches the 

 characteristic form of the Australian skulls. The 

 whole description resembles as closely, if not more 

 so, that of the Semi-Cretins, as they are found by 

 hundreds in poor mountainous districts. The pro- 

 jecting teeth, the pendulous belly, the thick noses, 

 puffy lips, are always the attendants on scrofula, 

 that widespread disease, which is produced by damp 

 dwellings, bad food, want of care, and similar causes. 

 That there has been degeneration in these poor 

 creatures is unquestionable ; * but, as by proper care, 

 the noble Andalusian horse may be developed from 

 the little, rough, thick-bellied mustang, so may the 

 emigrant from Sligo to America, by proper alimen- 

 tation, be made to resemble, in his successors, the 

 Irishmen of Meath." 



(9.) Some years ago two Irishmen were present in 

 Louvain at a public thesis, in which it was main- 

 tained that all the varieties (black, white, big, and 

 dwarfish) could descend from one couple, Adam and 

 Eve, since the people of Meath and those of Mayo, 

 though of the same stock, are as different from each 



* I question it, and so does Colonel Chichester, see p. 104. 

 The Irish are a tough race. E. H. 



