THE DESCENT OR OBIOIN OF MAN 243 



decrease, it generally goes on decreasing until it becomes 

 extinct." 



When civilized nations come into contact with barbarians 

 the struggle is short, except where a deadly climate gives its 

 aid to the native race. Of the causes which lead to the vic- 

 tory of civilized nations, some are plain and simple, others 

 complex and obscure. "We can see that the cultivation of 

 the land will be fatal in many ways to savages, for they 

 cannot, or will not, change their habits. New diseases and 

 vices bave in some cases proved highly destructive ; and it 

 appears that a new disease often causes much death, until 

 those who are most susceptible to its destructive influence 

 are gradually weeded out;" and so it may be with the evil 

 effects from spirituous liquors, as well as with the uncon- 

 querably strong taste for them shown by so many savages. 

 (It further appears, mysterious as is the fact, that the first 

 meeting of distinct and separated peoples generates disease." 

 Mr. Sproat, who in Vancouver Island closely attended to 

 the subject of extinction, believed that changed habits of 

 life, consequent on the advent of Europeans, induces much 

 ill-health. He lays, also, great stress on the apparently 

 trifling cause that the natives become "bewildered and dull 

 by the new life around them; they lose the motives for 

 exertion, and get no new ones in their place."" 



The grade of their civilization seems to be a most impor- 

 tant element in the success of competing nations. A few 

 J^enturies ago Europe feared the inroads of Eastern barba- 

 I rians ; now any such fear would be ridiculous. It is a more 

 * curious fact, as Mr. Bagehot has remarked, that savages did 

 not formerly waste away before the classical nations, as they 

 now do before modern civilized nations; had they done so, 



3' Gerland ("Ueber das Aussterben der Naturvolker," 1868, s. 12) gives 

 facts in support of this statement. 



" See remarks to this effect in Sir H. Holland's "Medical Notes and Eeflec- 

 tons," 1839, p. 390. 



** I have ooUeoted ("Journal of Researches: Voyage of the Beagle," 

 p. 435) a good many cases bearing on this subject; see also Gerland (ibid., 

 S. 8). Foeppig speaks of the "breath of civilization aa poisonous to savagee." 



& Sproat, "Scenes and Studies of Savage Life," 1868, p. 284. 



