1 40 HEREDITY AND SOCIETY 



alpine sanatoria. We may take it for a fact that, 

 should migration cease, each local population would 

 in time become adjusted to its climate and environ- 

 ment ; while a constant movement of population must 

 lead to the perpetual destruction of types that are 

 unfitted to the new surroundings. 



A very great deal of human energy is certainly wasted 

 in trying to alter environment to suit capacity, instead 

 of distributing individuals in existing conditions which 

 are favourable to their development, or in segregating 

 and so putting an end to types which cannot under any 

 circumstances be profitable servants to the nation as 

 a whole. Endless instances will occur to people who 

 are accustomed to deal in different capacities with men 

 throughout the world, as to the importance of consider- 

 ing the inborn or hereditary qualities of human beings. 

 The Italian labourers, for instance, can work with far 

 less discomfort in the great transalpine railway enter- 

 prises than workmen from Germany or Switzerland. 

 The darker race, for some reason unknown to us, suffer 

 to a less extent from the painful " caisson " disease 

 consequent on the high-pressure tunnelling operations. 

 Thirty years ago, when all the corn coming to England 

 was discharged at the ports in sacks carried on men's 

 backs, it was well known that short dark-skinned 

 labourers, although on an average they took a smaller 

 load in the course of the day, would nevertheless hardly 

 suffer from an agonizing form of " sore back " due to 

 the friction of the canvas sacks, which would soon 

 disable the tall, fair-haired, light-skinned type of man. 

 Again, in Portugal, where the labourers of the southern 

 districts, a heterogeneous race of mixed origin, are said 



