11 
given to birds of the finch tribe will turn them black. Rich 
and plentiful food, also, when given to young swine, directly 
tends to make their heads both broader and shorter ; whereas 
poor food w r orks the contrary result. Horses, too, fed on fat, 
marshy grounds, grow to a large size ; while on strong soils 
or dry heaths they remain small. 
14. With respect to Climate , it is equally well established that 
among domesticated swine, living under constant shelter from 
the weather, the bristles become much diminished. In the same 
way, exposure to, or protection from, the influences of climate, 
will more or less affect the hair of all animals. Mr. Darwin says 
that in the West Indies, about three generations are enough 
to produce a very great change in the fleece of sheep. In Africa 
their fleece degenerates into a coarse hair. The mastiff and 
goat from Thibet, when brought; down from the Himalaya 
mountains to Kashmir, lose their fine wool. At Angola, not 
only goats, but shepherd dogs, and even cats, have fine fleecy 
hair; the thickness of their fleece being attributable to severe 
winters, and its silky lustre to hot summers. Karakool sheep 
lose their peculiar black curled fleeces when removed into, any 
other country. Indeed, cases have been known, even within 
the limits of England, of two breeds of sheep having been 
slightly changed in consequence of being pastured in different 
localities.* 
15. That results of an analogous nature extend to the 
human species, is indisputable. Thus the Turks now in 
Europe, whose ancestors came originally from Mongolia, and 
who, before their settlement in the West, possessed all the 
Turanian characteristics of physiognomy, are at present pos- 
sessed of fine oval skulls and other corresponding features. 
The Hungarians also, whose ancestors came originally from 
the Uralian mountains, and were of the same stock with the 
degraded Ostiaks and Ugrians, and who, when they first 
made their appearance in the ninth century on the river 
Danube, had yellowish-red hair, broad noses, and were 
of small stature, are now a handsome people, with regular 
European features. It will, perhaps, be said that both these 
cases may have been influenced by intermarriages with 
members of the Indo-European family ; and, of course, so far 
any special argument drawn from the action of climate, 
food, &c., as having modified their original form, will fail. 
But, to say the least of it, these intermixtures of race were not 
likely to have been sufficiently general as to have permeated 
the whole of each nation. Whereas, arguing analogically 
* Darwin’s Variation of Animals and Plants, vol. ii. p. 278. 
