LECTURE XV. 429 



that party spirit speaks here, painting the condition of the 

 Irish in as gloomy colours as possible, and probably assiiming 

 some few ragged and broken-down beggars as the type of 

 the whole race. But, assuming the description to be correct, 

 it is so imperfect and defective, that we can scarcely con- 

 ceive how such a cautious writer as Quatrefages can find in 

 it a description of the Australian savage. 



No person has examined such a degenerate Irish skull, and 

 shown how far it deviates from other Irish skulls, or approaches 

 the characteristic form of the Australian skulls. The whole 

 description resembles as closely, if not more so, that of the 

 semi-cretins, as they are found by hundreds in poor moun- 

 tainous districts. The projecting teeth, the pendulous belly, 

 the thick noses, puffy lips, are always the attendants on 

 scrofula, that wide-spread disease which is produced by damp 

 dwellings, bad food, want of care, and similar causes. That 

 there has been degeneration in these poor creatures is unques- 

 tionable ; that neglect has changed the noble horse into a little 

 rough, thick-bellied mustang is certain ; but just as by proper 

 care the noble Andalusian horse may be developed from the 

 mustang, so may the scrofulous Irish emigrant from Sligo to 

 America, by proper alimentation, be made to resemble in his 

 successors the Irishman of Meath. Nothing in the whole 

 description proves that any of the characteristic features of 

 the Irish or Celtic skull had been obliterated. We have, 

 therefore, before us changes such as are experienced by civil- 

 ised races, when the conditions requisite for preserving that 

 civilisation begin to fail. 



We are, however, as already stated, far from denying certain 

 modifications in races produced either by hunger and misery, 

 or by transplantation to a foreign climate. We simply main- 

 tain, that these changes are in most human species but trifling, 

 that they stand in proportion to the flexibihty of the race, and 

 that most races possess so Httle flexibility that, on being 

 transported to a foreign climate, they perish rather than adapt 

 themselves to the new influences. 



The first and most common influence of climate shows itself 

 in a diminution of gene rati \^e power in both sexes, v/hicli, by 

 diminishing the number of births, even if they balance the 



