Acclimatization. 7 1 



there are deviations, too, which must be considered 

 abnormal. In other words, there is a limit, beyond 

 which the great pliability of our constitution fails 

 to adjust itself. The environment is then said to 

 be vitiated, whether naturally or artificially. The 

 great estuary of the Gaboon is naturally so insalu- 

 brious that it is destructive to even the native 

 negro. Accidentally, the marshes of Corsica, the 

 Maremma, the Campagna di Roma, are to be 

 ranged in the same class; but they are within reach 

 of improvement. The hearts of many great cities, 

 like London, Paris, New York, are vitiated arti- 

 ficially. It is reported that a Parisian of unmixed 

 Parisian blood cannot be traced farther back than 

 three generations. The city families are extin- 

 guished in that short space of time. Similarly, at 

 Besangon, families die out in less than a century; 

 and they are insensibly replaced by healthy ones 

 from the country. 



82, Amid the immense variety of conditions, to 

 which human life has been exposed, our 

 species, located at first within a very Shepherds, 

 limited area, has now been distributed Farm ers. 

 over the entire globe, and has adjusted itself to 

 every shade of difference, from either polar region 

 to the equatorial zone. Let me call your attention 

 to its classification into hunters, shepherds and 

 tillers of the soil. The hunters are they who first 

 spread in every direction. We have seen them in 

 the Indians of this country. Their mode of life, 



