143 Ohjervatians on the Negrodii 



above negro heads to this common fault. Some month? 

 after, however, I had an opportunity of convincing myfclf 

 that there are real negroes whole features correfpond very 

 nearly with thofe of the Europeans, and that the above 

 heads in the gallery of Pommersfeld might be a true repre- 

 fentation of nature. 



Going to pay a vifit atYverdun to the two brothers Trey- 

 torrens, one of whom, the chevalier, had been thirty-five 

 years in the French fervice, particularly at St. Domingo; and 

 the other, by means of the opportunities which his brother" 

 enjoyed, had a collection of natural curiofities that contained 

 many rare articles, when I entered the court of their elegant 

 habitation, which is fituated on the road to Goumoens, I fawnO 

 perfon to fhewmeinto the houfe, except a woman of an agreeable 

 figure, who was ftanding with her back toward? me. When 

 ■flie turned round to give me an anfwer, I wasifitich furprifed 

 to find that the was a female negro, whofe face perfectly cor- 

 refponded with her figure, and fully juftified the fidelity of 

 Kkenefs in Vahdyk's negro heads, which I had ken at Pom- 

 mersfeld. All the features of her face, even the nofc and 

 lips, the latter of which were a little thick, though not fa 

 as to be difagrceable, had they been covered with a white 

 fkin, muft have excited univcrfal admiration. At the lame 

 time the was not only exceedingly lively, and poffefied a 

 found traderftanding ; but, as I afterwards learned, was ex- 

 tremely well informed and expert in the obftetric art. The 

 handfome pretty negrefs of Yverdun is celebrated far and 

 near as the belt midwife in the Italian part of Swillerlaud. 

 I was informed by her mailer, the chevalier, who has in 

 his fervice alfo a negro man as elegantly formed as a fhtue, 

 that (lie was a Creole from St. Domingo; that both her pa- 

 rents were natives of Congo, but not fo black as the neo-roes 

 of Senegal. 



Since that period I have had an opportunity of feeing and 

 converting with many negroes, and have procured for my 

 collection a great many anatomical preparatioas from negro 



bodies, 



