The generally received opinion concerning the varieties of complexion which are found in the different races of man throughout the globe is, that they are caused entirely by the influence of climate. Respecting the primary color of man the supporters of this opinion are not agreed. The opinion'that climate alone will ac count for the various complexions of mankind is very plausible, and supported by the well known facts that in Europe the complexion grows darker as the climate becomes warmer; that the complexion of the French is darker than that of the Germans, while the natives of the south of France and Germany are darker than those of thc north; that the Italians and Spaniards are darker than the French, and the natives of the south of Italy and Spain darker than those in the north. The complexion also of the people of Africa and the East Indies is brought forward in support of this opinion; and from these and similar facts the broad and gen eral conclusion is drawn, that the complexion varies in darkness as the heat of the climate increases; and that, therefore, climate alone has produced this variety. But it can be shown that the exceptions to this general rule arc very numerous; that people of dark complexions are found in the coldest climates, people of fair complexions in warm climates, people of the same complexion throughout a great diversity of climate, and races differing materially' in complexion dwelling near together.
1. In the coldest climates of Europe, Asia and America we find races of a very dark com plexion. The Laplanders have short, black, coarse hair; their skins are swarthy, and the irides of their eyes are black. According to Crantz the Greenlanders have small, black eyes; their body is dark gray all over; their face brown or olive; and their hair coal-black.
The complexion of the Samoiedes and other tribes who inhabit the north of Asia is very similar to that of the Laplanders and Green landers, who are Eskimos by race. Humboldt's observations on the South American Indians illustrate and confirm the same fact If climate rendered the complexion of such of these In dians as live under the torrid zone, in the warm and sheltered valleys, of a dark hue, it ought also to render or preserve fair the com plexion of such as inhabit the mountainous part of that country; for certainly, in point of c.li mate, there must be as much difference between the heat of the valleys and of the mountains in South America as there is between the tempera ture of southern and northern Europe; and yet this authority expressly assures us that utile In dians of the torrid zone, who inhabit the most elevated plains of the C.ordillera of the Andes, and those who, under the 45th degree of south latitude, live by fishing among the islands of the archipelago of Chonos, have as coppery a complexion as those who, under a burning cli mate, cultivate bananas m the narrowest and deepest valleys of the equinoctial region." He adds, indeed, that the Indians of the mountains are clothed, but he never could observe that those parts which were covered were less dark than those which were exposed to the air. The inhabitants also of Tierra del Fuego, one of the coldest climates in the world, have dark complexions and hair.
2. Fair-complexioned races are found in hot climates. Ulloa informs us that the heat of Guayaquil is greater than at Carthagena; and by experiment he ascertained the heat of the latter place to be greater than the heat of the hottest day at Paris; and yet in Guayaquil, ((not withstanding the heat of the climate, its natives are not tawny); indeed they are (so fresh colored, and so finely featured, as justly to be styled the handsomest, both in the province of Quito and even in all Peru? According to a statement of Humboldt, in the forests of Guiana, especially near the sources of the Orinoco, )are several tribes of a whitish complexion of whom several robust individuals, exhibiting no symptom of the asthenical malady which charac terizes albinos, have the appearance of true Mestizos. Yet these tribes have never mingled
with Europeans, and are surrounded with other tribes of a dark brown hue? The inhabitants of Boroa, a tribe in the heart of Araucania, are white, and in their features and complexion very like Europeans. Even in Africa darlaiess of complexion does not increase with the heat of the climate in all instances; the existence of comparatively fair races in this quarter of the globe is noticed by Ebn Hau!cal, an Arabian traveler of the 10th century, and has been con firmed by subsequent travelers.
3. The same complexion is found over im mense tracts of country, comprehending all pos sible varieties of climate. The most striking and decisive instance of this is on the continent of America, all the inhabitants of which, with the exception of the Eslcimo, exhibit the copper colored skin and the long and straight black hair. Australia is an instance of a similar na ture, though on a less extensive scale: over the whole of the island, even in the comparatively cool climate of the southern parts, the complex ion. of its inhabitants is of a deep black, and their hair is curled like that of negroes.
4. Different complexions are iound under the same physical latitude, and among the same people. Illustrations and proofs of this have al ready been given. The physical latitude in which the Norwegians, the Icelanders, the Finns and the Laplanders live scarcely differs; and yet their complexion, and the color of their eyes and hair, are widely different. There is a great diversity of color and features among the Morlachs, who inhabit Dalmatia. The inhabit ants of Kotar, and of the plains of Seigu and ICnin, have fair blue eyes, broad face and flat nose. Those of Duare and Vergoraz, on the contrary, have dark-colored hair; their face is long, their complexion tawny and their stature tall. M. Sauchez, who traveled among the Tartars in the southern provinces of Russia, describes a race or tribe as having countenances as white and fresh as any in Europe, with large black eyes. In the south of Africa we find the Kafirs, who are of a brown or iron-gray color, and the Hottentots of a yellow color. In the island of Madagascar, according to Mr. Sibree, the observer ((finds almost every shade of color from a very light olive, not darker than is seen in the peoples of southern Europe, down through all gradations of brown to a tint which although not black is certainly very dark. In the quality of the hair, too, there is a good deal of difference; the lighter-colored people having usually long, black and straight hair, while the darker tnbes have, as a rule, shorter and more frizzly hair.) Besides a Malayan olive-colored race, people with the negro complexion and features are found in the Philippine Islands; and in Java, the Hindu and Malay character may be clearly traced in the complexion and features of the two classes of inhabitants which are found in that island. In several of the Moluccas is a race of men who are blacker than the rest, with woolly hair, inhabiting the interior, hilly parts of the country. The shores of these islands are rify peopled b another nation, whose inhabitants are swart , with curled, long hair. In the interior hil y parts of Formosa the inhabitants are brown, frizzle-haired and broad-faced; while the Chinese occupy the shores.