THE HUMAN SPECIES. 191 



The legs have the shin bones slightly bent forwards, 

 and the calves placed high up ; the feet broad, heavy, 

 squarish, with the soles flat ; the os calcis less promi- 

 nent ; the toes short, more equal in length : and all the 

 nails strong, short, and broad. The skin is soft, silky 

 to the touch ; in the new born infant, dull cherry red, 

 gradually darkening to the permanent depth of shade ; 

 beneath the epidermis the mucous membrane, loaded 

 with a colouring matter in the bile, causes the melanic 

 appearance of the skin, which varies, however, from 

 deep sallow to intense sepia black ; darkest in health ; 

 and that colour always distinctly affects the external 

 glands. It is likewise the source of an overpowering 

 offensive odour, spreading through the atmosphere, 

 when many are congregated in the hot sun. The silky 

 texture of the epidermis is more liable to erosion from 

 pressure than that of white men. It is a character as 

 organic, or more so, than the arched dome of the skull, 

 and the perpendicularity of the vertebral column, which 

 are quoted as the sole cause, why burthens are best 

 borne by Negroes on the head instead of the back ; for 

 their general structure is athletic, the gait erect, free, 

 and in young persons not ungraceful. 



It appears that some tribes in Dongola and Sennaar 

 have one lumbar vertebra more than the Caucasian, 

 and tf^ stomach corrugated.* In general, the female 



* " Observations sur les battaillons Negres du Cordofan 

 an service de Mehemet AH en Egypte et qni servirent en 

 Candie." By a German surgeon. The same remarks ara 

 likewise offered, \ve believe* by Dr. Madden, Travels, &c. 



