( 127 ) 



had taken them, I faw there was left a black fpot. Thefe Scales I 

 conceived to be fuch as were almoll ready to fall off; for when I 

 attempted to take others, which were firmly fixed in the fkin, an 

 eifufion of blood foilow^ed. When I placed two of thefe Scales 

 one on another, they aflumed a blackifli colour ; and we muft not 

 wonder, that when viewed fingly through the microfcope they 

 fliould be tranfparent, and yet when on the (kin appear black, for 

 if ink, though very black, is placed very thin before the microf- 

 cope, it will only feem a little darker than common water ; and 

 the fame is the cafe with refped: to black filks, for if a filament of 

 fuch filk, as thin as what is fpun by the worm, is viewed through 

 t!ie microfcope, it will appear, not black, but of a dark colour and 

 alfo fomewhat tranfparent. But many particles, laid one on another, 

 although not wholly black, will appear fo to our eyes. And here- 

 upon, finding that the blacknefs of Negroes is only caufed by the 

 Scales being of that colour, I was enabled to form a better judgment 

 than I had before done refpeifting the appearance of children newly 

 born, for they are almofl always of a red colour, by reafon that 

 the Scales on their bodies, or only the firll rudiments of them, are 

 then beginning to appear ; fo that the blood is feen thi'ough the 

 fkin, giving it a red colour: and the fame is the cafe with Negro 

 children newly born, with this difference only, that they are of a 

 deeper crimlbn than our children. And I am certain, that as our 

 children, by the growth of tranfparent Scales on their bodidi, be- 

 come white, fo the children of Negroes, by the growth of the 

 Scales on their bodies become of a black colour. The only thing 

 that puzzled me about this Negro girl's fkin was, that on the in- 

 fide of her hands, and the bdttom of her feet, the Scales form ■ 

 ing that part called a callus were quite white ; but an old lady in 

 this town, who formerly lived in Brazil, and to whom the girl's 

 grandmother had been a fervant, told me, that this girl's parents 

 were from Angola ; and that though all Negroes are born red, and 



