.|70 CAUSES OF THE VARIETIES 



luable sheep, we see a prodigious difference, which is probably 

 owing more to cultivation and attention to breed than to climate. 

 It does not appear, at least, that change of climate will con- 

 vert the wool of an individual English sheep into hair; and 

 it is equally incapable of conferring a woolly covering on 

 the hairy sheep. Dr. Wright*, who lived many years in 

 Jamaica, speaking of the opinion that the wool of sheep 

 becomes more hairy in warm climates, says, that in the 

 West-India islands there is to be found a breed of sheep, 

 the origin of which he has not been able to trace, that carry 

 very thin fleeces of a coarse shaggy kind of wool ; which 

 circumstance, he thinks, may naturally have given rise to 

 the report. But he never observed a sheep that had been 

 brought from England to carry wool of the same sort with 

 those native sheep : on the contrary, though he has known 

 them live there several years, these English sheep carried 

 the same kind of close burly fleece that is common in 

 England ; and, in as far as he could observe, it was equally 

 free from hairs. 



The differences in stature, again, have been very confi- 

 dently ascribed to adventitious causes. A temperate climate^ 

 pure air, copious food, tranquillity of mind, and healthy oc- 

 cupation, have been thought favourable to the full deve- 

 lopement of the human frame ; while extreme cold, bad 

 and unwholesome food, noxious air, and similar causes, 

 have been thought capable of reducing the dimensions of 

 the body below the ordinary standard. That these causes 

 may have some effect on individuals I do not deny, although 

 I believe that it is very slight : but the numerous examples 

 of large people in cold countries, and diminutive men in 

 warm climes, induce me to deny altogether its operation on 

 the race. The tall and large-limbed Patagonians, certain 

 North American tribes, and some of the German races, in- 

 habit cold situations : the Mongols, who are small in sta- 

 ture, live in warm countries. 



The facts and observations adduced in this section lead 

 us manifestly to the following conclusions : 1st, That the 

 difl'erences of physical organization and of moral and intel- 



* Dr. Anderson on the dijff'erent Kinds of Sheep ; Appendix ii. 



