The Descent of Man

improbable. Consequently I endeavoured, with
but little success (61. In the spring of 1862 I obtained
permission from the Director-General of
the Medical department of the Army, to transmit
to the surgeons of the various regiments on
foreign service a blank table, with the following
appended remarks, but I have received no returns.
"As several well-marked cases have been
recorded with our domestic animals of a relation
between the colour of the dermal appendages
and the constitution; and it being notorious
that there is some limited degree of relation
between the colour of the races of man and
the climate inhabited by them; the following
investigation seems worth consideration. Namely,
whether there is any relation in Europeans
between the colour of their hair, and
their liability to the diseases of tropical countries.
If the surgeons of the several regiments,
when stationed in unhealthy tropical districts,
would be so good as first to count, as a standard
of comparison, how many men, in the