ENVIRONMENT 59 



shade, peculiar to their conditions of life; and 

 to expect such people to see things in the same 

 light as we see them, or to hold them to the same 

 accountability, is, to say the least, unreasonable. 



Climate, however, is but one of many elements 

 of environment. Illustrations of the influence of 

 trades and modes of life on human development 

 are familiar to all readers of Darwin's " Descent of 

 Man," Watchmakers and engravers are proverbi- 

 ally near-sighted, while those who live much in the 

 open air are long-sighted. " Short-sight and long- 

 sight certainly tend to be inherited." ^ Europeans 

 are inferior to savages in the strength and clear- 

 ness of their sight, and this is probably due to the 

 indoor life of the people, and to the transmission 

 from generation to generation of the effect of the 

 less frequent use of the eyes for observing objects 

 at long distances. Blumenbach, as reported by 

 Darwin, has observed that the nasal cavities in the 

 skull of American Indians are unusually large, 

 and connects this fact with their wonderful power 

 of detecting objects by the sense of smell.^ It is 

 said that the Mongolians of Northern Asia have 

 well-nigh perfect senses, and it has been inferred 

 that " the great breadth of their skulls across the 



1 Descent of Man, Darwin, p. 1,^. 



2 Ibid. p. 34. 



