52 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I. 



not supported by linguistic data, and has been generally 

 abandoned. At any rate, such a theory must be much limited, 

 and is in Polynesia only applicable to the Tonga and Samoa 

 Archipelago ; hence the great differences of colour and physi- 

 cal conformation upon most of the above groups of Islands 

 must be considered as the result of external conditions. 



From the preceding facts there seems to result, that the 

 colour of the skin, though not always in proportion to latitude 

 and mean temperature, is essentially influenced by climate; 

 that the extent and mode of this influence is chiefly regulated 

 by habits and mode of life ; that next to these, descent has the 

 greatest influence ; and that food has also its share in the pro- 

 duction of colour, though in a subordinate degree. It is further 

 shown that hot and damp countries, unprotected by forests, 

 and a mode of life which exposes the organism to climatic in- 

 fluences, strongly favour the darkening of the skin. Frequent 

 and great alterations of temperature, especially sudden changes 

 from wet to dry, brown the skin in every climate and in every 

 race, if the body is much exposed and unprotected. 



We must not, however, expect that the European in America 

 or Africa, or the Negro in America, should, after a few cen- 

 turies, or perhaps ever, assume the type of the aborigines ; for 

 where diet and habits of life, and the whole care for body and 

 soul differ so essentially between immigrants and aborigines, 

 the former can only veiy gradually approach the latter, specially 

 where there is a constant influx of immigrants. This assimila- 

 tion can only be effected as far as the influence of climate is 

 alone concerned. The following observations are interesting 

 in this respect. 



The Germans who in the last century emigrated to Penn- 

 sylvania, and to the banks of the Mohawk, differ at present * 

 considerably from the German type ; and, between the Yankee 

 and the Englishman the difference is said to be still greater. 

 " Pale, a somewhat darker colour, smoothness and softness of 

 features, strike the stranger. The effect of the climate is more 

 decided in the central and southern than in the northern parts, ] 

 and more striking in the plains near the sea than in the vicinity 

 of the Appalachian mountains, and also among the working 





