M. Flourens on the Natural History of Man. 353 



There are in the skin of the white race three distinct laminae 

 or membranes — the derm, and two epiderms ; and in- the skin 

 of the black race there is, besides the derm and the two epi- 

 derms of the jvhite race, a particular apparatus, an apparatus 

 which is altogether wanting in the man of the white race, an 

 apparatus composed of two layers, the external of which is the 

 seat of the pigmentum or coloming matter of the Negroes, 



There is, then, in the skin of the black race, an apparatus 

 which is wanting in that of the tvhite race. The two races, 

 the white and the black therefore, form two essentially and 

 specifically distinct races. And these two races are not only 

 distinct by a character of form, as the characters drawn from 

 the conformation of the cranium and face are ; they are so by 

 a character of structure, by a special and very complicated ap- 

 paratus, by an apparatus which exists in one of the two races, 

 and is wanting in the other. 



Buifon supposes that the black colour is only the effect of 

 climate. He supposes, that originally the Negro was white. 

 All these suppositions fall before the better known anatomy of 

 the skin. The effect of climate can neither give nor take away 

 an apparatus or tissue. 



The individual, indeed, of the wliite race, may assume that 

 swarthy dark complexion M'hich is the effect of hot weather ; 

 but anatomy informs us, that the seat of this swarthy complexion 

 is the second epiderm, and not a peculiar and distinct apparatus. 

 On the other hand, the Mulatto results from the crossing of 

 the black and white races ; and the colouring apparatus of 

 the NegTO is always found in the Mulatto. 



The white race and the black race are then, I repeat, two 

 essentially distinct races. The same is true of the red or 

 American i*ace. Anatomy discovers, under the second epiderm 

 of the individual of the red, copper-coloured, Indian, or Ame- 

 rican race (for this race is called indifferently by all these 

 names), a pigmental apparatus which is the seat of the red 

 or copper colour of this race, as the pigmental apparatus of the 

 Negro is the seat of his black colour. 



M. Cuvier says of the American race, " that, although it has 

 not yet been clearly reduced to any of the races of the Old 

 Continent, it does not possess at once a precise and constant 



