![Transcription Center logo](/themes/custom/tc_theme/assets/image/logo.png)
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
[[center margin]] 204 to heighten that disgusting coarseness which so many other causes concur to create. I have now briefly examined the effects of climate, of various modes of living, and states of society upon the complexion, and figure of the human spe- cies.--And in this examination we have seen that the pliant nature of man is susceptible of many changes from the action of the minutest causes:and the action of these causes habitually repeated through a sufficient period of time, can create, at length, the most conspicuous distinctions among people origin- ally the same. The effect proceeds, increasing from one generation to another, till it arrives at that point where the constitution can yield no farther to the power of the operating cause. Here it assumes a permanent form, which constitutes the character of the climate, or the nation. It is frequently asked on this subject, why, unless there be an original difference in the species of men, are not the natives of all climates born, at least, with the same figure and complexion? To such enqui- ries it is sufficient to answer, that it is for the same reason, whatever that may be, that other resemblan- ces of parents are communicated to children. Ex- perience demonstrates that figure, stature, complex- [[center margin]] 205 ion,features,diseases and even powers of the mind may become hereditary. To those who find no dif- ficulty in acknowledging that these properties may be communicated to offspring according to the estab- lished laws of nature, the transmission of the climat- ical or national differences among men, of which we have treated, can contain nothing which ought to appear supernatural, or incredible.- If it be enquir- ed, why, then a sun burnt face, or a wounded limb, is not, by the same laws, if they exist, trans- mitted to posterity? we may justly reply, that these are only partial accidents which produce no change on the interior structure and temperament of the con- stitution. It is the constitution which is conveyed by birth. And when any change becomes incorpo- rated, into the system, so as, in any considerable degree, to affect its organization, or the state of its secretions, it then becomes communicable to off- spring along with all other constitutional properties? I proceed, now , to consider the exceptions exist- ing in different regions of the globe which seem to stand in opposition to the principles maintained in this essay. I begin with recalling an observation which I have formerly made, that these exceptions are neither so
Transcription Notes:
----------
Reopened for Editing 2023-06-05 14:11:44
----------
Reopened for Editing 2023-06-05 14:12:30