In  Sparta,  also,  a  form  of  selection  was  followed,  for  it  was
enacted  that  all  children  should  be  examined  shortly  after
birth;  the  well-formed  and  vigorous  being  preserved,  the
others  left  to  perish.  |

*Mr.  Bates  remarks  (*'  The  Naturalist  on  the  Amazons,"  1863,  vol.
ii,  p.  159),  with  respect  to  the  Indians  of  the  same  South  American
tribe,  "  No  two  of  them  were  at  all  similar  in  the  shape  of  the  head  ;
one  man  had  an  oval  visage  with  fine  features,  and  another  was
quite  Mongolian  in  breadth  and  prominence  of  cheek,  spread  of  nos-
trils, and  obliquity  of  eyes."

f  Blumenbach,  "  Treatises  on  Anthropolog.,"  Eng.  translat.,  1865,
p.  205.
:}:Mitford's  "History  of  Greece,"  vol.  i,  p.  282.  It  appears  also
from  a  passage  in  Xenophon's  "Memorabilia,"  B.  ii,  4  (to  which  my
attention  has  been  called  by  the  Kev.  J.  N.  Hoare),  that  it  was  a  well
recognized  principle  with  the  (J reeks,  that  men  ought  to  select  their
wives  with  9f  view  to  the  health  and  vigor  of  their  children.     The


MANNER  OF  DEVELOPMENT.  33

If  we  consider  all  the  races  of  man  as  forming  a  single
species,  his  range  is  enormous;  but  some  separate  races,  as
the  Americans  and  Polynesians,  have  very  wide  ranges.  It
is  a  well-known  law  that  widely  ranging  species  are  much
more  variable  than  species  with  restricted  ranges;  and  the
variability  of  many  may  with  more  truth  be  compared  with
that  of  widely  ranging  species,  than  with  that  of  domesti-
cated animals.
