modifications of the organism, and particularly of the special
alterations of each organ, connected with the phenomena of
acclimatization. This reproach cannot be denied. We have not yet
reached the stage in Australia of noting the effect which climate has
upon the system in general, much less of inquiring into the changes
which occur in such organs as the liver, spleen, &c. But apart from
investigating the phenomena of acclimatization, it is very plain that
the people of Australia have never given any heed to their semitropical
climate, or else the food-faults now universally practised would have
been rectified long before this.

It has always been a matter of interesting speculation as to what the
characteristic type of the future Australian will be. But reflections
of this kind can only be in the right direction by bearing in mind the
ever-present climatic conditions. Climate is of all forces the most
irresistible; for, on the one hand, the Great Desert of Sahara could
not be crossed in an Arctic costume and on Esquimaux diet; nor, on the
other, could the Polar regions be explored in a Hindoo garb and on
Oriental fare. And though blood is thicker than water, yet the
resistless influence of a semi-tropical range of temperature will be to
imprint on the descendants of the present inhabitants of Australia some
marked peculiarities of skin-colour, of facial expression, of lingual
accent, and perhaps even of bodily conformation.

Quite recently an observing writer, in a keenly analytical if somewhat
facetious article, gave it as his opinion that the coming Australians
will be as follows:--"They will not be so entirely agricultural as the
Americans were; they will be horsemen, not gig-drivers. Descended from
adventurers, not from Puritans, and eager, as men of their climate must
be, for pleasant lives, they will thirst for dependent possessions, for