The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to SexDarwin, Charles
History
The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
Darwin, Charles
Evolution (Biology); Human beings -- Origin; Sex differences; Sexual dimorphism (Animals); Sexual selection in animals
It is familiar to every one that watchmakers and engravers are liable
to be short-sighted, whilst men living much out of doors, and
especially savages, are generally long-sighted. (29. It is a singular
and unexpected fact that sailors are inferior to landsmen in their mean
distance of distinct vision. Dr. B.A. Gould (‘Sanitary Memoirs of the
War of the Rebellion,’ 1869, p. 530), has proved this to be the case;
and he accounts for it by the ordinary range of vision in sailors being
“restricted to the length of the vessel and the height of the masts.”)
Short-sight and long-sight certainly tend to be inherited. (30. ‘The
Variation of Animals under Domestication,’ vol. i. p. 8.) The
inferiority of Europeans, in comparison with savages, in eyesight and
in the other senses, is no doubt the accumulated and transmitted effect
of lessened use during many generations; for Rengger (31. ‘Säugethiere
von Paraguay,’ s. 8, 10. I have had good opportunities for observing
the extraordinary power of eyesight in the Fuegians. See also Lawrence
(‘Lectures on Physiology,’ etc., 1822, p. 404) on this same subject. M.
Giraud-Teulon has recently collected (‘Revue des Cours Scientifiques,’
1870, p. 625) a large and valuable body of evidence proving that the
cause of short-sight, “C’est le travail assidu, de près.”) states that
he has repeatedly observed Europeans, who had been brought up and spent
their whole lives with the wild Indians, who nevertheless did not equal
them in the sharpness of their senses. The same naturalist observes
that the cavities in the skull for the reception of the several
sense-organs are larger in the American aborigines than in Europeans;
and this probably indicates a corresponding difference in the
dimensions of the organs themselves. Blumenbach has also remarked on
the large size of the nasal cavities in the skulls of the American
aborigines, and connects this fact with their remarkably acute power of
smell. The Mongolians of the plains of northern Asia, according to
Pallas, have wonderfully perfect senses; and Prichard believes that the
great breadth of their skulls across the zygomas follows from their
highly-developed sense organs. (32. Prichard, ‘Physical History of
Mankind,’ on the authority of Blumenbach, vol. i. 1851, p. 311; for the
statement by Pallas, vol. iv. 1844, p. 407.)
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