!r
k/
48 APPEARANCE OF THE INHABITANTS.
not sufficiently taken into consideration,
by travellers, when choosing a residence
on the Continent. In many of the towns
you are constantly assailed by a swarm of
beggars, whenever you descend into the
streets, and thus your feelings are harassed
by the sight of extreme misery, which,
perhaps, it is not in your power to relieve.
It is true, the daily and constant occurrence
of such shocking exhibitions o f wretchedness
renders us less sensible to the impression
; but tranquillity may be too dearly
purchased, if accompanied by habitual insensibility.
The Genevese are a mixed race, derived
from the French, the Germans, and the
Italians. By long intermarriages, they have
acquired a peculiar characteristic physiognomy.
The children are handsome, but
they appear to lose much of their beauty
as they become adult. Soon after our arrival
at Geneva, we had an opportunity of
seeing a large portion of the male population
of all classes pass in procession to attend
the funeral of a respected citizen, and
were impressed with the striking difference
of form and stature, that seemed to mark
two distinct races ; the one tall and well
ROUSSEAU S EMILE.
made, the other remarkably dwarfish, and
more or less deformed. The latter were
generally among the aged. We frequently
■ observed the same difference afterwards ;
indeed, I scarcely ever saw so large a portion
of dwarfish and deformed old men and
women as at Geneva, and this is the more
remarkable as the children are mostly well
formed.
On enquiring into the cause of the improved
appearance in the present generation,
we were told that it had formerly
been the general custom of the Genevese,
to send their children out to be nursed
among the peasants of Savoy, where, by
improper treatment, and the want of due
nourishment and cleanliness, they became
rickety and unhealthy, and the foundation
was laid for disorders of the spine. Some
time after the publication of Rousseau’s
Emile, his eloquent appeal to mothers
began to produce an effect on his countrywomen
; the barbarous custom of sending
their infants from home was abandoned,
and it became the general practice for mothers
either to suckle their children themselves,
or to have wet-nurses in the house.
Several inhabitants of Geneva, who were
VOL. II. E
i l .