DIFFERENTIAL CHARACTERS COMPLEXION. 989 



extent among the African nations, which appear to be similarly related to 

 each other." It may be freely admitted that, among European colonists 

 settled in hot climates, such changes do not present themselves within a few 

 generations ; but in many well-known instances of earlier colonization, they 

 are very clearly manifested. Thus the wide dispersion of the Jewish nation, 

 and their remarkable isolation (maintained by their religious observances) 

 from the people among whom they live, render them peculiarly appropriate 

 subjects for such observations ; and we accordingly find that the brunette 

 . complexion and dark hair, which are usually regarded as characteristic of 

 that race, are frequently superseded, in the Jews of Northern Europe, by 

 red or brown hair and fair complexion ; whilst the Jews who settled in 

 India some centuries ago, have become as dark as the Hindoos around them. 



831. The relation of the complexions of the different Races of Mankind 

 to the climates they respectively inhabit, which is established by an extended 

 comparative survey of both, leads to the general conclusion that the inter- 

 tropical region of the earth is the principal seat of the darkest races, whilst 

 the region remote from the tropics is that of the fairer races ; and that the 

 climates approaching the tropics are generally inhabited by nations which 

 are of an intermediate complexion. It is important to observe, however, 

 that no regular gradation of tint can be observed in passing from the equa- 

 torial to the polar regions. M. Paul Broca l has particularly pointed out 

 that the Esquimaux of Greenland, the Lapps and Finns of Europe, and the 

 Samoyedes and Kamschatkans of Asia, all of them nations inhabiting the 

 most northern regions of the habitable globe, present a deep olive com- 

 plexion, dark straight hair, and dark eyes ; being considerably deeper inline 

 than the Chinese, Burmese, Cochin-Chinese, and Malays, although these are 

 situated so much nearer the equator, and are exposed to the rays of a far 

 fiercer sun. The same conclusion is forced upon us by a survey of the various 

 nations inhabiting the western shores of America ; for if we trace them in suc- 

 cession from Behring's Straits to Patagonia, we shall find that under the same 

 latitude as Norway there dwells a race whose color is yellowish-brown, mixed 

 with red; under that of England a perfectly white race (Vancouver's Isl- 

 anders), under that of France a red race (Oregon), under that of Spain 

 and Algeria a black race (California). From thence as far as the equator, 

 under the same latitude as Guinea and Soudan, are races of a merely brown 

 tint, much lighter than the inhabitants of those regions. Lastly, the races 

 which occupy the littoral region extending from the equator to Tierra del 

 Fuego, prese'nt a brown tint, becoming lighter as the colder regions are ap- 

 proximated ; but are suddenly succeeded, under the rigorous climate of 

 Patagonia, by one or more blackish or altogether black races. To these 

 observations it may be added that high mountains, and countries of great 

 elevation, are generally inhabited by people of a lighter color than are those 

 of which the level is low, such as swampy or sandy plains upon the seacoast. 

 These distinctions are particularly well seen in Africa, where the tropics 

 almost exactly mark out the limits of the black complexion of the inhabi- 

 tants; and where the deepest hue is to be seen among the_ Negroes of the 

 Guinea Coast, whose residence unites both the conditions just mentioned, 

 whilst the mountainous regions in their immediate vicinity are inhabited by 

 tribes of a much lighter aspect. 



832. The nature of the Hair is perhaps one of the most permanent char- 

 acteristics of different races, and a division has been established between the 



1 In his paper on Hybridity, in M. Brown-Sequard's Journal de la Physiolosjie 

 for 1858, p. 462. See for many analogous instances, J. Craufurd, in the Transactions 

 of the Ethnological Society, vol. i, p. 364. 



