THE FORMATION OF RACES. 191 



some years ago during each summer, but not during the winter, 

 his hands became marked with light brown patches, like, al- 

 though larger that freckles, and that these patches were never 

 affected by sun-burning, whilst the white parts of his skin have 

 on several occasions been much inflamed and blistered. With 

 the lower animals there is, also, a constitutional difference in lia- 

 bility to the action of the sun between those parts of the skin 

 clothed with white hair and other parts." Whether the saving 

 of the skin from being thus burnt is of suflicient importance to 

 account for a dark tint having been gradually acquired by man 

 through natural selection, I am unable to judge. If it be so, we 

 should have to assume that the natives of tropical America have 

 lived there for a much shorter time than the negroes in Africa, 

 or the Papuans in the southern parts of the Malay archipelago, 

 just as the lighter-colored Hindoos have resided in India for a 

 shorter time than the darker aborigines of the central and south- 

 ern parts of the peninsula. 



Although with our present knowledge we cannot account for 

 the differences of color in the races of man, through any advan- 

 tage thus gained, or from the direct action of climate; yet we 

 must not quite ignore the latter agency, for there is good reason 

 to believe that some inherited effect is thus produced." 



We have seen in the second chapter that the conditions of life 

 affect the development of the bodily frame in a direct manner, 

 and that the effects are transmitted. Thus, as is generally ad- 

 mitted, the European settlers in the United States undergo a 

 slight but extraordinarily rapid change of appearance. Their 

 bodies and limbs become elongated; and I hear from Col. Bernys 

 that during the late war in the United States, good evidence was 

 afforded of this fact by the ridiculous appearance presented by 

 the German regiments, when dressed in ready-made clothes 

 manufactured for the American market, and which were much 

 too long for the men in every way. There is, also, a considerable 

 body of evidence showing that in the Southern States the house- 

 slaves of the third generation present a markedly different ap- 

 pearance from the field-slaves.™ 



" 'Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' vol. ii. 

 pp. 336, 337. 



"^ See, for instajice, Quatrefages ('Revue des Cours Scientifiques,' 

 Oct. 10, 1868, p. 724) on the effects of residence in Abyssinia and Arabia, 

 and other analogous cases. Dr. Rolle ('Der Mensch, seine Abstam- 

 mung,' &c., 1865, s. 99) states, on the authority of Khauikof, that the 

 greater number of German families settled in Georgia, have acquired 

 in the course of two generations dark hair and eyes. Mr. D. Forbes 

 in£orms me that the Quichaus in the Andes vary greatly in color, 

 according to the position of the valleys inhabited by them. 



™ Harlan, 'Medical Researches,' p. 532. Quatrefages ('Unite de I'Es- 

 pece Humaine.' 1861, p. 128) bas collected much evidence on this head. 



