PATHOLOGICAL VARIETIES. 55 



seems to us difficult to admit, since education, in this case, 

 would suppose a triumphant struggle against the ordinary 

 course of things. Every animal comes into the world as its 

 parents came, or, at least, apparently so. If he brings with 

 him, by inheritance, certain particular characteristics, they 

 must necessarily in time become obliterated either by their 

 own means, or by destroying all those who possess them (the 

 case of hereditary degeneracy) . In fact, if perfection in a race 

 were possible by means of an individual, the consequence 

 would be that very soon our descendants would be no longer 

 in relationship with the circumambient medium, which would 

 be an absurdity.* 



As to individual education, it has an undeniable influence ; 

 but this does not suffice to explain such important differences. 

 We never find that Europeans, who happen to be thrown 

 among savages, attain to these peculiarly fine and delicate per- 

 ceptions so special to many aborigines. And, moreover, the 

 American residing in boundless forests, where the view is 

 always restricted, has as piercing a glance as the Kalmuc upon 

 his plain. The question of the education of an organ or a 

 system by the individual himself will be cleared up, doubtless, 

 one of these days, by attentive anatomy. And since we are 

 upon the subject, let us remember that an important study 

 still remains, hitherto merely glanced at, that of the influence 

 which, for instance, the milk of an animal or a female of an- 

 other race may have upon the development or the health of a 

 white child. 



The differences which we call physiological are very nu- 

 merous; we shall, however, only quote two or three from 

 among the most striking. The principal point, perhaps, is the 

 peculiar smell of the Negro. This is so strong, that it even 

 impregnates for some time a place where a Negro may only 

 have remained for a few hours, and it is so characteristic, that 

 it alone constitutes a grave presumption in matters of slave- 

 trading; for Humboldt has stated concerning the Peruvians 



* It would be interesting to discover if the fact related by Knox (The 

 Races of Men, 1850, p. 271) is true; namely, that the sharpness of sight, 

 which the Bosjesmans possess in a very high degree, is lost immediately on 

 crossing the breed with the whites. 



