V 



HUMAN SPECIES. 3^5 



fquieu * was of opinion, that the nations feeding chiefly on filh, origin 



OF soci 



were the mofl prolific, becaufe the greafy, oily, particles of fifh, g^iES. 

 feem to firpply more of that fubflance which nature fecretes for 

 the purpofes of generation, than any other kind of food. This 

 fingular opinion, though retailed by many fenfible copiers, -f is 

 not founded in nature, or confirmed by experience. In Green- 



L 

 I 



land, J and among the Efkimaux, || where the natives live chiefly 

 on fifh, feals, and oily animal fubflances, the women feldom bear 

 children oftener than three or four times ; five or fix births arc 

 ■reckoned a very extraordinary inflance. The PeJ/erais, whom wc 

 faw, had not above two or three children belonging to each fa- 



J ■ 



mily, though their common food confifled of mufcles, fifh and 

 feals-flefh. The Neiv-Zeelanders abfoiutely feed on fifh, and yet 



more 



than three or four children were found in the mofl pro- 



I 



lific families j which feems flrongly to indicate, that feeding on fifh 



by no means contributes to the increafe of numbers in a nation, 

 but that there are other caufes concurring, which promote popu- 

 lation. 



From the preceding arguments, it appears that the PeiTerais are 

 wretched on account of the inhofpitality of their climate, and be- 



Sf2 



caufe 



* Montefquieu Efprit de Loix, book 23, chap. xlii. 



I De Saintfoix EflTais Hiftoriqucs fur Paris, torn, ii, p. i8t, 



% Crantz/s Hiilory of Greenland, vol. i. p, 161, 



ii Lieut. Curtis, in the Philof. TranC vol. Uiv, part ii, p. 385. 



