94 HISTORY OF 



tremes are unfavourable to the human form and 

 colour, and the same effects are produced under 

 the Poles that are found at the Line. 



With regard to the stature of the people of dif- 

 ferent countries, that seems chiefly to result from 

 the nature of the food, and the quantity of the 

 supply. Not but that the severity of heat or cold 

 may, in some measure, diminish the growth, and 

 produce a dwarfishness of make ; but, in general, 

 the food is the great agent in producing this ef- 

 fect : where that is supplied in large quantities, 

 and where its quality is wholesome and nutri- 

 mental, the inhabitants are generally seen above 

 the ordinary stature. On the contrary, where it 

 is afforded in a sparing quantity, or very coarse, 

 and void of nourishment in its kind, the inhabi- 

 tants degenerate, and sink below the ordinary 

 size of mankind. In this respect they resemble 

 other animals, whose bodies, by proper feeding, 

 may be greatly augmented. An ox, on the fer- 

 tile plains of India, grows to a size four times as 

 large as the diminutive animal of the same kind 

 bred in the Alps. The horses bred in the plains 

 are larger than those of the mountain. So it 

 is with man : the inhabitants of the valley are 

 usually found taller than those of the hill ; the 

 natives of the Highlands of Scotland, for in- 

 stance, are short, broad, and hardy ; those of the 

 Lowlands are tall and shapely. The inhabitants 

 of Greenland, who live upon dried fish and seals, 

 are less than those of Gambia or Senegal, where 

 nature supplies them with vegetable and animal 

 abundance. 



