On the Cretins of the Fallals. 27 1 



tion of them in his letters to Charles V. The 

 ftature of the Dondos, the Kakerlak, and White 

 Indian is nearly that of the Cretin of the Pays 

 de Vallais, and their whole apppearance an- 

 nounces exceflive debility and weaknefs. Their 

 (imilitude, in many other refpedts, feems to give 

 fome weight to the fuppofition of a like defici- 

 ency in their formation. The weaknefs of the 

 eye, they are all in fome degree fubjefb to ; 

 deafnefs in one degree or other is peculiar to 

 them ; they all die early; and they have ail the 

 fame fcanty portion of intelligence. 



Much has been written* on the blacknefs of the 

 negro, and for fome time, like the atoms of 

 Epicurus, one fyftem regularly confuted ano- 

 ther. Whatever the derangement which produ- 

 ces the variety in the negro may be owing to, 

 it may poffibly bear fome relation to that which 

 occafions an alteration, nearly as violent, in the 

 human fpecies of the Vallais. Mr. Michel, a 



der the title F. Cortefii de InfuHs nuper repertis Narratio 

 ad Carolum Quintum. For an account of the white In- 

 dian fee BufFon, Hift. Natarelle de rHomme. Dam- 

 pier's Voyages, vol. IV. p. 252, and Melange de Litera- 

 ture, torn. I. where Voltaire has given a very minute 

 defcription of the white Indian brought to Paris in 1744. 



* SeeSanftorinus, Malpighi, Albinus, Ruyfch, Haller, 

 Winflow and Heillcr. Town's Letter to the Royal So- 

 ciety. Hilt, de I'Academie de Sciences. 1702. Diflerta- 

 tion de Monf. Barrere. Traite de Monf. le Cat. Zimmer- 

 man Geograph.Zoolog.& Memoiresdel'AcademiedeBeriin. 



name 



