352 M. Flourens on the Natural History of Man. 



history of man, properly so called, in Herodotus, Strabo, even 

 Galen, &c., than certain erroneous opinions about the nature 

 and causes of the colour of the Negroes. The true founder of 

 this new science is BufFon. His treatise on the Varieties of 

 the Human Species is the first important step made in this 

 department of study. But, for want of sufficiently sure ana- 

 tomical characters, Buffon did not arrive at the precise de- 

 termination of these varieties. He admitted a transition 

 from the negro to the white ; he believed that the heat of 

 the climate was the only cause of the black colour ; and he came 

 to this conclusion, that all the physical differences which at 

 present distinguish the varieties of the human species have only 

 been, originally, the effect of external and accidental causes. 



Camper is the first who sought precise anatomical characters. 

 His observations on the profile of the Negro compared with 

 that of the white, were a real advance ; and Blumenbach, the 

 venerable father of present naturalists, made a farther step, 

 by extending to the entire conformation of the cranium and of 

 the face this study of precise characters, which Camper had 

 only applied to ihe facial line. 



On the other hand, Malpighi, Albinus, Meckel, Cruikshank, 

 Gautier, &c., endeavouring to determine the seat of the colour 

 of the Negroes, opened a way which has been much more suc- 

 cessful, although its full results have only been obtained in our 

 own days, as we shall now shew. 



Malpighi supposed that the layer of the skin, which he called 

 the corpus or rete mucosum, was the seat of the colour of the 

 blacks. Albinus and Meckel believed they demonstrated it ; 

 but from new anatomical researches, to which I have lately 

 subjected the whole structure of the skin, it is evident that 

 Malpighi, Albinus, Meckel, &c., had very confused ideas con- 

 cerning the natm'e of the corpus mucosum. 



In the first place, they supposed it arranged as a network ; 

 it forms, however, a continuous lamina. In the second place, 

 they supposed it to be chiefly in the skin ; it exists, in reality, 

 only in the mucous membranes. Lastly, they supposed that 

 this corpus mucosum, white in the white race, black in the 

 black race, determined, by its colour alone, the colour of the 

 men of these two races ; it does no such thing. 



