DIFFERENCES IN BODILY STRENGTH. 347 



Land, seventeen of New Holland, fifty-six of the island of 

 Timor, seventeen Frenchmen belonging to the expedition, 

 and fourteen Englishmen in the colony of New South 

 Wales. The following numbers express the mean result in 

 each case ; but the details are all given in a tabular form in 

 the original. 



STRENGTH 



^_ — ^ 



of the Arms. of the Loins. 



Kilogrammes. Myria grammes. 



1. Van Diemen's Land 50.6 



2. New Holland 50.8 10.2 



8. Timor 58.7 ^\.Q 



4. French 69.2 15.2 



5 English 71.4 16.3* 



The highest numbers in the first and second class were 

 respectively, 60 and (^2 ; the lowest in the English trials, 

 63, and the highest 83, for the strength of the arms. 

 In the power of the loins, the highest amongst the New 

 Hollanders was 13, the lowest of the English 12.7, and the 

 highest 12.3. 



These results offer the best answer to the declamations on 

 the degeneracy of civilized man. The attribute of superior 

 physical strength, so boldly assumed by the eulogists of the 

 savage state, has never been questioned or doubted. Al- 

 though we have been consoled for this supposed inferiority 

 by an enumeration of the many precious benefits derived from 

 civilization, it has always been felt as a somewhat degrading 

 disadvantage. Bodily strength is a concomitant of good 

 health, which is produced and supported by a regular sup- 

 ply of wholesome and nutritious food, and by activ^e occu- 

 pation. The industrious and well-fed middle classes of a 

 civilized community may, therefore, reasonably be expected 

 to surpass, in this endowment, the miserable savages, who 

 are never well fed, and too frequently depressed by abso- 

 lute want, and all other privations. 



* PiiitoN, Voyage^ t. 1. chap. 20. p. 440, et suiv. ; t. Additions and Cor- 

 rections, p, 460, et suiv, 



