sufficient time were allowed this would be the invariable result. But I
have failed to obtain clear evidence in favour of this conclusion; and
valid reasons may be urged on the other side, at least as far as the
innumerable structures are concerned, which are adapted for special
ends. There can, however, be no doubt that changed conditions induce an
almost indefinite amount of fluctuating variability, by which the whole
organisation is rendered in some degree plastic.
In the United States, above 1,000,000 soldiers, who served in the late
war, were measured, and the States in which they were born and reared
were recorded. (17. Investigations in Military and Anthrop.
Statistics, etc., 1869, by B.A. Gould, pp. 93, 107, 126, 131, 134.)
From this astonishing number of observations it is proved that local
influences of some kind act directly on stature; and we further learn
that the State where the physical growth has in great measure taken
place, and the State of birth, which indicates the ancestry, seem to
exert a marked influence on the stature. For instance, it is
established, that residence in the Western States, during the years of
growth, tends to produce increase of stature. On the other hand, it is
certain that with sailors, their life delays growth, as shewn by the
great difference between the statures of soldiers and sailors at the
ages of seventeen and eighteen years. Mr. B.A. Gould endeavoured to
ascertain the nature of the influences which thus act on stature; but
he arrived only at negative results, namely that they did not relate to
climate, the elevation of the land, soil, nor even in any controlling
degree to the abundance or the need of the comforts of life. This
latter conclusion is directly opposed to that arrived at by Villerme,
from the statistics of the height of the conscripts in different parts
of France. When we compare the differences in stature between the
Polynesian chiefs and the lower orders within the same islands, or
between the inhabitants of the fertile volcanic and low barren coral
islands of the same ocean (18. For the Polynesians, see Prichard s
Physical History of Mankind, vol. v. 1847, pp. 145, 283. Also Godron,
De l Espece, tom. ii. p. 289. There is also a remarkable difference
in appearance between the closely-allied Hindoos inhabiting the Upper
Ganges and Bengal; see Elphinstone s History of India, vol. i. p.
324.) or again between the Fuegians on the eastern and western shores
of their country, where the means of subsistence are very different, it
is scarcely possible to avoid the conclusion that better food and
greater comfort do influence stature. But the preceding statements shew
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