10 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



produces similar effects upon those subjected to it. That is to say, 

 the "Negrito of Malacca and the Philippine Islands may resemble the 

 Yoloff and the Bantu of Africa, because his climate and mode of 

 life are similar. If this is not the case, it is singular, that, over the 

 vast area in which either the Negrito or the Australian must have 

 supplanted the other, there should be no evidence of mixture of 

 race, no remains of a mixed race evidently sprung from the union of 

 the two. You may say to me, that one race exterminated the other. 

 I say that in early times it was impossible to conquer and extermi- 

 nate a race over a vast area. It is hardly possible now for a very 

 civilized to extirpate a very uncivilized race over a large tract of 

 country. Much less was it possible then, when all ' the devilish 

 enginery of modern war had not been invented, and the process of 

 killing one's fellow was slow, and very far from sure. 



We shall be still more doubtful of the value of the preceding classi- 

 fication as a guide to community of descent, when we notice how the 

 shape of the skull, which one would think would be as fixed as the 

 colour of the skin or the character of the hair, varies in all but the 

 Australioid division. We know that abundance of good food will in- 

 crease the size of many of the lower animals, and that by a process 

 of artificial selection from among the varieties naturally produced 

 we can change almost any character to an indefinite extent. May it 

 not possibly be the case that the shape of the skull, and the colour of 

 the skin, hair, and eyes and other physical characters may be the 

 results of that natural selection which Darwin puts forward as the 

 operative cause in originating species. 



A great deal of light would be thrown on the question we have 

 just raised, if it could be clearly shown that some physical character 

 was either independent of, or dependent on the environment. For 

 various reasons the character of colour seems to give greater pi-omise 

 of results than any other. We have a greater abundance of informa- 

 tion in regard to it than any other, and it seems at any rate at first 

 sight to vary according to a law. 



"The colour of the skin" in the different races "varies from the 

 very pale reddish brown of the so-called white races, through all shades 

 of yellow and red brown to olive and chocolate, which may be so 

 dark as to look black." That of the hair, varies from the flaxen of 

 some northern races, to a very deep brown 01 bluish black. That of 

 the eyes varies from a very light blue through different shades of blue, 



