170 REPORTS Of EXAMINING SURGEONS. 



In reply to the inquiiy as to the fitness of the negro for military service, a want of 

 opportunity for observation has g-enerally been alleged ; but, so far as the expei'ience 

 of the writers' extended, it is noticeable that they all seem to speak with admiration of 

 the physical proportions of the blacks who came before them.' 



' Puun'hu-Bky states that the tendency in i.egio races is to exceed the mean in stature. {Memoire sur hs negres, 

 Mem. de hi Scic. d'anthrop., t. i, p. ;5]4.) The black troops iu th'' army of General Napier in the Abyssinian campaign, 

 and those sent from the West Indies to serve nmler Sir Garnet Wolseley iu his expedition .igainst Coomassie, were re, 

 markalde for their size and proportion. Dr. Schweinkukth, m his recent work, (Heart of Africa, 2 vols., Svo, London, 

 187'2,) records lUe mean stature of mauy tribes of Central Africa, which, iu most instances, attained to 67 inches. 



