428 LECTURE XV. 



eastward to tlie sea. The same race was^ on tlie other side of 

 the kingdom^ driven into Leitrim, Sligo^ and Mayo. Ever 

 since that time these people have been exposed to the bad 

 effects of hunger and ignorance, the two great demoralisers of 

 the human race. The descendants of these refugees can still 

 be distinguished from their cognates in Meath and other dis- 

 tricts. They have open projecting mouths, with prominent teeth, 

 and exposed gums, high cheek bones, depressed noses, and pi'e- 

 sent barbarism on their front. We thus see in Sligo and the 

 north of Mayo the consequences of a two hundred years' misery 

 upon the whole physical structure, an example of deteriora- 

 tion by known causes, which offers some compensation by its 

 importance for the future, in shewing the sufferings through 

 which former generations have passed. They are on the 

 average five feet two inches high, big bellied, bandy-legged ; 

 their clothes a bundle of rags — thus walk about the spectres 

 of a people in the daylight of civilisation, as representatives 

 of Irish misery and ugliness ; a people once well grown, able- 

 bodied, and handsome. In other parts of the island, where 

 the people have undergone no such degradation, the same 

 race furnishes the finest models of human beauty and strength, 

 both physically and mentally." 



" Every reader," adds Quatrefages to this description, " who 

 is any way acquainted with the distinguishing characters of 

 mankind, will, with the exception of the colour, recognise here 

 the character ascribed to the lowest Negroes, and the degene- 

 rate Australian tribes.'"* And further : " These two different 

 groups, one of which reminds us of the lowest races of Aus- 

 tralia ; and the other, which will bear comparison with any 

 white race, are they really of the same race ? We answer 

 no. The Irishman of Meath alone represents the old stock, 

 the sui'rounding media have for him remained the same, and 

 he is unaltered. The Irishman of Flews, on the contrary, 

 placed under different conditions, has changed, and formed a 

 new race, derived from the old, which corresponds to the 

 media which produced it. There are now in these adjoining 

 districts two races," Thus far Quatrefages. 



Let us examine this point. And, first, we must remember 



