2. Individuals belonging to the Caucasian variety that inhabit warm countries, preserve their native fairness of complexion, if they are not exposed to the influence of the climate ; while there is a uniform black colour over all the parts of a negro's body. The women of Circas sia, Arabia, and Aleppo, and the Moorish women, we are informed by travellers, are very fair, not being exposed to the influence of the sun. (Russel and Poiret, in the passages already quoted ; Observations de Pierre Brian, p. 199 ; Voyage fail par ordrc du Roi, dans la Palestine, quoted by Buffon, and other authorities given by hint, iii. 12.) On the contrary, every part of the body of a Ne gro or Indian is equally black. Soemmering asserts, that the cavity of the axilla, the inside of the thigh, and the glans penis are black ; and even a small circle of the conjunctiva round the cornea is blackish, while the rest of the membrane has a yellowish brown tinge. Hum boldt affirms, that " the Indian Caciques, who enjoy a certain degree of ease in their circumstances, and who remain clothed in the interior of their houses, have all the parts of their body (with the exception of the hollow of their hand and the sole of their foot) of the same brownish red, or coppery colour." And, in another place he says, that " the Indians of the mountains (whom we have already noticed, as having as coppery a com plexion as those in the wallies) are clothed ;" and yet he never could observe." that, in the same intik idual, those parts of the body, which were covered, were less dark, than those in contact with a warm and humid air." (Humboldt, i. 145. and 116.) Winterbottom makes the same remark respecting the Negroes, which Humboldt does respecting the Indians : " toat the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet, are nearly as white as in Europeans, and continue sn through life."( ll'interbonoin, i. 189.) This probably arises from the greater thickness of the cuticle in those parts, and is an argument against that membrane being the scat of colour in the dark complexioned races.
But for the illustration of these points, it is not ne cessary to refer to the Negroes and Indians, as con trasted with the Caucasian race under a warns climate: in our own country, there arc people naturally of a dark complexion, and people who are merely rendered dark by the influence of the sun. The children of the former (if the parents arc both dark-complexioned) as sume the colour of their parents very soon after they arc born (let them be ever so carefully protected from the sun); whereas, the children of parents merely tan ned continue fair, if not exposed to the sun. The skin of persons in this country. naturally dark-complexion ed, is nearly of the same colour all over their bodies ; but the skin of tanned persons preserves its natural i fairness in those parts which have not been exposed to the sun. The coldness of winter, or removal into a cold climate, has no visible or permanent effect on the complexion of people of this country, who are naturally dark ; whereas, a dark complexion, merely acquired by exposure to the sun, even in the East or West In dies, is removed entirely, or in a great degree, by 3 cold climate. Indeed, the notorious fact, that in this and other northern countries of Europe there are fa milies of a naturally dark complexion, and families na turally fair skinned, but extremely liable to be tanned, proves that climate cannot be the sole cause of dark complexion ; while the facts which we have stated, re specting the colour of the children of the Caucasian and other varieties, and respecting the different com plexion of the Caucasian variety, according as the body is exposed to the sun, or kept covered, and the uniform colour of the Negro and Indian, illustrated as they are by what occurs among ourselves, clearly points out in what respects native complexion differs from acquired.
There arc several other circumstances which point out the difference between native and acquired com plexion, and which prove that the colour of the dark complexioned varieties is not the effect of climate ;— but on these we can merely touch.
The hue which Europeans assume is the same, though the tinge may be lighter, or darker, whether they settle in Africa, the East Indies, or South Ameri ca. They do not become, like the natives of those countries, black, olive coloured, or copper coloured; their complexion merely resembles that of a tanned person in this country, only' of a darker tinge. The Negroes that arc settled in the West inches, or Amen ca, do not assume the copper of the Indians, even though a milder clinoee may have some effect on the darkness of their complexions.
The children of Europeans, of Negroes, and of Indi ans, are all 1,0,11 in America of the same reddish hue ; a few days those of the Nigro begin to assume the black complexion of their parents, those of the In dian the copper complexion, while those of the Europe an either continue fair, if kept from the influence of the sun, or become tanned ; not black like the Negro, or copper coloured like the Indian, if exposed to its influ ence.
Europeans who settle in Canada, or in the northern parts of America, where the climate resembles that of their native country, do not assume the complexion of the Indians, but continue fair like their ancestors. The same observation may be made respecting the Rus sians who are settled among the ,Mongolian variety, in those parts of the Russian empire in Asia, the cli mate of whicd resembles the middle or northern parts of European Russia. Indeed, the wide extent of Coun try over which the Alongolian variety is spread, ding the extreme cold of Lapland and the north of Asia, the mild temperature of the middle parts of that continent, and the warmth of the southern parts of China, is in itself a proof, that dark complexion does not arise either from the influence of heat or cold.
Lastly, Radical varieties of complexion are always accompanied with radical varieties of features. We do not find the olive colour of the Mongolian variety with the features of the Malay ; nor the brown colour of the Malay with the features of the Mongolian ; nor the black skin of the Ethiopian variety, or the red co lour of the American, united with any set of features but those which characterise their respective varieties.
It, however, by no means follows, that the hypothe sis of different races having been originally formed, must be adopted, because climate has been proved not adequate to the production of the radical varieties of complexion which are found among mankind. The conclusions which Dr Pritchard (Dissert. Inaug. de .Hom. Varlet. p. 119.) draws are much more philoso phical and consonant to all the facts which have been brought forward in this article.
1. That the natural constitution of man, as well as of animals, is modified by climate, manners, and other physical and moral causes.
2. That the effects thus produced are confined to one generation, and not transmitted to the offspring.
3. That man, as well as animals, has a propensity to form natural varieties ; and that the diversities of man kind are proofs and examples of this propensity.
Lastly, That as this propensity will account for all the varieties of complexion and features found in the human race, it is unnecessary and unphilosophical to have recourse to the hypothesis of different species ori ginally created, to account for the phenomenon. (w. s.)