202 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



permanent in a nee. But accidental appearances must have 

 a cause, and terminate when that cause disappears. Men 

 covered with hair, or with a horny skin, may reproduce this 

 character in their offspring; but then it is exceptional and dis- 

 appears in the next generation. Albinism is more evident, 

 and therefore believed to be more frequent in the woolly-haired 

 races of man ; but in the sandy plains of the north-west of 

 Europe, the same appearances occur, though not quite with the 

 marks of disease; it is mere absence of coloring matter in the 

 system. Among Mongolic nations it is unknown, or very 

 rare, and it is equally so with the aboriginal tribes of America. 

 The stature of mankind is unquestionably influenced by the 

 adequate supply of wholesome food ; and hence the civilized 

 nations of moderate climates are more generally of an equal 

 standard than barbarians and savages, among which the 

 hunter and pastoral nomad tribes arrive at the greatest stature. 

 But, in these cases, a Caucasian element may be expected to 

 be present, whether we take the Miao-tze of China, the 

 Caffres of Eastern Africa, the Patagonian Araucas of South 

 America, or the Creeks and other tribes in the north. For, if 

 some latent cause of this kind did not produce the difference, 

 all other tribes in the same climate, and under similar condi- 

 tions of food and mode of life, would acquire a similar height; 

 yet this is not the case ; and it is even known, in both the 

 Americas, that the union of two tribes, differing in this respect, 

 has produced, in one generation, the disappearance of a 

 superior growth. Ancient history likewise represents the 

 northern Gauls (Belgae), and the Teutonic nations, as far 

 superior in stature to the civilized Romans, though they do not 

 appear in their barbarous habits to have been better fed than 

 the tall tubes of North America. In gracefulness of propor- 

 tion, the American mixed white races with Negroes, both of 

 French and British, and still more, of Spanish origin, yield to 

 none in any part of the world ; and it is a mistaken notion to 

 believe in the assertion that the standard contour of beauty 



