160 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



without any additional aid. Though, on one hand, \t 

 is here stated, that the Negroes, from the coast of 

 Africa, were, in all probability, still less favoured than 

 the measurements of Dr. Morton proved ; it is, on the 

 other, equally true, that the progress of development, 

 and the elevation of the forehead, in the mixed off- 

 spring between the woolly haired and white races, is 

 often effaced in a second generation. It is so always 

 much sooner than the apparently insignificant characters 

 of the colour of the skin, and the crispness of the hair, 

 which is never totally obliterated till after the fourth 

 generation, when the African character may be deemed 

 absorbed.* It is advanced as established, that an ac- 

 cidental effect in the external characters of an indivi- 

 dual may become permanent in a race. But accidental 

 appearances must have a cause, and terminate when 

 that cause disappears. Men covered with hair, or 

 with a horny skin, may reproduce this character in 

 their offspring ; but then it is exceptional, and disap- 

 pears in the next generation. Albinism is more evi- 

 dent, and therefore believed to be more frequent in the 

 woolly haired races of man ; but in the sandy plains of 

 the north-west of Europe, the same appearances occur, 

 though not quite with the marks of disease ; it is mere 

 absence of colouring matter in the system. Among 



* The effect of employing Negro wet nurses, universally 

 adopted in the tropics, may be suspected to have some 

 influence on the appearance and temperament of white 

 children. Numerous instances of external marks, and of 

 qualities for good or evil, may be traced to the practice ; 

 for none of the same kind occur in Europe. 



