APPENDIX. 495 



thtir privilege*,* — In this change of color, produced by the mofl power- 

 ful of all natural caufes, the mixture of perfons of difFertn' complexions ; 

 fo gradual and flow is the operation, iha: the black muft be (ubjcdt to five 

 divifions, and the operation muft be continued through five generations, 

 before the color is completely changed. 



Seat of Color. — That the different colors of the human fpecies 

 are feated in the (kin is very apparent. The (kin confifts of three folds or 

 coverings. The firft is a very fine and tranfparent integument, and is white 

 in people of all colors. The fecond is a cellular membrane, differently 

 colored in different perfons. The third is alfo white. It is in the fecond 

 of thefc, that the color is feated. In black people, a Very able anatomiftf 

 obferves that the ficin is much thicker and larger, than in white ones ; the 

 cellular membianf: in the latter being a thin mucus, but in the former a 

 thick membrane. In whites this feat of the color is tranfparent, and ci- 

 ther totally deprived of vefTels, or only furnilhed with a very few ; as the 

 yellow color appearing in jaundice, vanifhes on the caufe of the difeafe be- 

 ing removed, which is not the cafe with ftains from gunpowder, or fimilar 

 •aufes. — Hence, he obferves, three caufes may be very readily affigned, 

 ■which will operate to deftroy the pelucidity of the fkin, and jive it a 

 brown color, and render it thicker. Thefe are the heat of the fun, the 

 accefs of air, and naflinefi. And in general any thing that operates to pro» 

 duce or to deftroy the pelucidity of the fkin, will tend to vary and change 

 the color of the human body. 



Color connected with Climate. — Among the caufes which 

 may affeft the color of the human body, it has been generally fappofed 

 that the influence of heat or climate, has a confiderable etfcft. Concern- 

 ing this influence or connexion betv/een color and climate, the following 

 observations may be made. 



1. Different colors are beft fuited to different climates. In all the 

 plants and animals which are (pread over the face of the earth, there is 

 lomething by which they are peculiarly fitted to the climate and country, 

 ill which they are olaced. One kind of vegetable requires a great degree 

 of heat : Another flourifhes the beft in a temperate and cold country. It 

 is the fame with animals. Some are fitted tor the heat of the torrid zone. 

 O. hers require the fcvere cold of the frigid zone, to give them th«r 

 greatert perfeciion. To all thefe animals, nature has given the proper 

 clothing; which admits of no other variation than what the feafons of the 

 vcar require. — Man is an animal made for every climate : Inftead of be- 

 ing formed for the torrid or frigid zone, he can live, multiply, and ar- 

 rive to his proper perfection, in any climate : And it is left to his owa 

 rca'bn and induftry to provide himfelf with fuch clothing, as his condition 

 may require, in every climate through which he may pals ; or in which 

 he may lojouin. And yet there is fomeihing in different m^n, which 

 qualifies and fits them for one climate, better than for another ; and that is, 

 color. — The man whofe color is black, is better fuited to the extremp 

 heat of the hoiteft climate, than any other of the human race. l^s 

 has been lona known and oblerved in the climates of Ameiica. The ne- 

 groes of the Weft India iflinds, in the Spanifn dominions, and in the ftateg 

 of vicorgia, and South Carolina, are found to bear the extreme heat of the 

 (ummer, better than the white people. On thecontra.-y, the negroes in 

 the northern ftates of America are more tender than the white people, lefs 



* Voyage de Ulloa, I. 27. Robcrifon's Hifl, .'\mcr. II. 369. 

 -f Doftor Hunter. 



