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Show 144 EARl Y' ltiSTt'>R Y OF • (_\.N~IND· ntay be held as established, for there are Arab and. J e·-viah families uf ancient settlement in ~·rorC,ern Afnca who have become as black as the other inh:\bit.ants. There are also facts which seem to show the possibility of a n~tural tl~ansition by generation from the black to the w l~Ite complexion, and from the white to the black. True 'vh1tes (apart f"t·om Albinoes) are not unfr~qu.ently b?rn. among the Negroes, and the tendency to th1s singulanty IS ~ra?S· mitted in familie~. There is at least one authentic In· stance of a set of perfectly black children being born. to an Arab couple in whose ancestry no such blood had lnterrningled. This occurred in the valley of ~he _Jordan, where it is remarkable that the .Arab population In general have flatter features, darker ~kins, and coarser hair · than any other tribes of the same nation.* The style of living is ascertained to have a powerful effect in modifying the human figure in the course of gener:: ttions, and this even in its osseous structure. About two hundred years ago, a number of people vvere driven by a barbarous policy from the counties of Antrim anl Down, in Ireland, towards the sea-coast, where they hav ever since been settled, but in unusually miserable cir cum5tances, even for Ireland; and the consequence, is, tha they exhibit pecul1ar features of the most repulsive kind, projecting jaws with large open mouths, depressed noses~ " high cheek bones, and bow l1!gs, together with an ex· tremely diminutive stature. These, with an abnormal slenderness of the limbs, are the outward marks of a low and barbarous condition all over the world; it is particularly seen in the Australian aborigines. On the other hand, the beauty of the higher ranks in England is very remarkable, being, in the main, as clearly a result of good external conditions. " Coarse, unwholesome, and illprepared food," says Buffon," makes the human race de generate. All those people who live miserably are ugly and ill-made. Even in France, the country people are not so beautiful as those who live in towns; and I have often remarked that in those villages vvhere the peot le are richer and better fed than in others, the men are like· wise more handsorne, and have better countenances." Ht might have added, that elegant and commodious dwell- " Buckingham's Travels among the Arabs. This f.tct is the more valuable to the argument, as ha\·ing be~n set dow with no regard to any kind of hypothesis. EARLY HISTORY OF MANKIND. 14:, lngs, cleanly habits, comfortable clothing and being exposed to the ?pen air only as much as health requires co-operate ":1th food in increasing the elegance of a rae~ of human beings. Subject o~ly to these modifyin~ agencies, there is, as has been said, a .remarkable per~tstency in national fea! ures and ~orm~, Insomuch that a single individual thrown tnto a family ~liferent from himself is absorbed in it and lll b·a~e of h1m lost after a few generations But ~bile ~here 1s such a persistenqr to ordinary observation, it would a~so. appear that nature has a power of producing ~1e~ varieties, though this is only done rarely. Such novllti~ s of tyre aboun~ in th.e vegetable world, are seen wnoi e rarely In the an1~al cn·cle, and perhaps are leasf ~requent ?f occurrence In our own race. There is a noted lns.~ance In the p..:-o~uction, on a New England farm, of a ~aitety of sheep -yv1th unusually short legs, which was kept up by breedinf5, on account of the convenience in that country of havtng Eheep which are unable to jump ove1· low fe~ces. T~e starting and maintaining a breed of ca.ttle, that Is,.~ vanety marked by some desirable peculianty, are fam1har to a large class of persons. It appears only nec~ssary, ·when a variety has bee~ tl~u~ produced, that a unwn should take place between Individuals similarly characterized in order to establish it. Early in the Ja~t centl:lry, a man named Lambert was born in Suffolk, w~th sern1-ho~·ney excresce~ces of about half an inch long, thtckly. growmg all over lns body. The p~culiarity was tr~nsm1tted t? his children, and was last heard of in a thnd gene1:11tton. The peculiarity of six fino-ers on the han? .and s1~ toes on the feet, appeal's in ljke 0 maNner in f~m~lles w.hich have no record or tradition of sue}:! a pecuhanty hav I?g affected them at any former period, and it is t~ten sometimes seen to descend thr.o~gh several generaho~ s. It was ~r. Lawrence:s .op1n.wn that a pair in which ~oth parties were so d1shno-u1.Shed might be the progenitors o~ a new variety of th~ race who~ would be thus marked 1~ all futnre time. It is not easy to surmise the c.auses which operate in producino- such varieties Perl_taps they are siJ?ply types in natu~·e, possible to b; realtz_e.d under certazn appropriate conditions, but which c?nd1hons are such as altoge~her to elude notice. I might c1te as examples of such possible types, the rise of \''>hites amongst the Negroes, the occ•H·rence of the family of 12 |