THE EXTINCTION OF RACES. 183 



Bishop Staley, it does not appear that the poorer classes have 

 ever much changed their diet, although many new kinds of fruit 

 have been introduced, and the sugar-cane is in universal use. 

 Owing, however, to their passion for imitating Europeans, they 

 altered their manner of dressing at an early period, and the use 

 of alcoholic drinks became very general. Although these changes 

 appear inconsiderable, I can well believe, from what is known 

 with respect to animals, that they might suffice to lessen the fer- 

 tility of the natives." 



Lastly, Mr. Macnamara states" that the low and degraded in- 

 habitants of the Andaman Islands, on the eastern side of the Gulf 

 of Bengal, are "eminently susceptible to any change of climate: 

 "in fact, take them away from their island homes, and they are 

 "almost certain to die, and that independently of diet or ex- 

 "traneous Influences." He further states that the inhabitants of 

 the valley of Nepal, which is extremely hot in summer, and also 

 the various hill-tribes of India, suffer from dysentery and fever 

 when on the plains; and they die if they attempt to pass the 

 whole year there. 



We thus see that many of the wilder races of man are apt to 

 suffer much in health when subjected to changed conditions 

 or habits of life, and not exclusively from being transported to 

 a new climate. Mere alterations in habits, which do not appear 

 injurious in themselves, seem to have this same effect; and in 

 several cases the children are particularly liable to suffer. It 

 has often been said, as Mr. Macnamara remarks, that man can 

 resist with impunity the greatest diversities of climate and other 

 changes; but this is true only of the civilized races. Man in 

 his wild condition seems to be in this respect almost as sus- 

 ceptible as his nearest allies, the anthropoid apes, which have 

 never yet survived long, when removed from their native 

 country. 



Lessened fertility from changed conditions, as in the case of 

 the Tasmanians, Maories, Sandwich Islanders, and apparently 

 the Australians, is still more interesting than their liability to 

 ill-health and death; for even a slight degree of infertility com- 



" The foregoing statements are taken chiefly from the following 

 works: 'Jarves' History of the Hawaiian Islands," 1843, p. 400-407. 

 Cheever, 'Life in the Sandwich Islands,' 1851, p. 277. Ruschenberger is 

 quoted by Bonwick, 'Last of the Tasmanians,' 1870, p. 378. Bishop is 

 quoted by Sir E. Belcher, 'Voyage Round the World,' 1843, vol. i., p. 

 272. I owe the census of the several years to the kindness of Mr. Coan, 

 at the request of Dr. Toumans of New York, and in most caSes I have 

 compared the Toumans figures with those given in several of the 

 above-named works. I have omitted the census for 1860, as I have 

 seen two widely different numbers given. 



" 'The Indian Medical Gazette,' Nov. 1, 1871, p. 240. 



