VARIATION. 105 



and diminishing their supply of food. A single illus- 

 tration of the effects of neglect will be given : 



" During the French Revolutionary War the ex- 

 cessive price of corn attracted the attention of the Gla- 

 morganshire farmers to the increased cultivation of 

 it, and a great proportion of the best pastures were 

 turned over by the plough cattle were almost entire- 

 ly neglected. . . . The natural consequence of inat- 

 tention and starvation was, that the breed greatly de- 

 generated in its disposition to fatten, and, certainly, 

 with many exceptions, but yet as their general char- 

 acter, the Glamorganshire cattle became and are flat- 

 sided, sharp in the hip-joints and shoulders, high in 

 the rump, too long on the legs, with thick skins, and 

 a delicate constitution." * 



" It is well known that defective sanitary arrange^ 

 ments in the dwellings of the poor may, by primarily 

 affecting the parents, impair the physical development 

 of their offspring, and that congenital deformities are, 

 for example, sometimes the result of the continued 

 deprivation of light, which thus indirectly induces an 

 arrest of development, such as can be produced direct 

 ly and at will in the case of tadpoles, which, in the 

 absence of light, fail to become frogs." a 



" The effect of darkness in producing deformities 

 is well illustrated in the case of the French historical 

 painter, Ducornet, who used to paint with his feet, 

 having been born without arms, of poor parents living 

 in one of the dark caverns under the fortifications of 



1 Youatton"Cattle,"p. 51. 



2 Sedgwick,in British and Foreign Medico- CJtirurgical Review^ July, 

 1863, p. 174. 



