496 APPENDIX. 



able to bear the feverity of our winters, and more apt to complain, fufK;., 

 and freeze with the cold— The white men are the reverfe of tliis They 

 bear the fevere winters of Canada, and RuiTia, without much difficulty or 

 fufFering : But in a hot climate they become fickly, 3nd fail fooner th3r\ 

 the negroes. Several colonies of wliite people have fubGded in the tor- 

 rid zone in America, more than two centuries; And yet they cannot bear 

 the heat, like theorigiiial inhabitants, or like the negroes. The one is 

 apparently beft fuited to a cold, and the other to a hot climate. And 

 thefe differences are as apparently owing to their color, for they do not 

 appear to be connefted with any other caufe, or circuinflance. Different 

 colors therefore in the human fpecies, are certainly bed adapted, fitted 

 and fuited, to different climates, 



2, There IS a tendency in climate to produce the color which it re- , 

 quires. Animal heat is derived but little from the fun, or from the at- 

 inofphere; but chiefly and mainly from original conftitution. The de- 

 Itgn of covering and clothing, is to detain and prefcrve the heat of the an- 

 imal body, in its natural fituaiion, degree and quantity ; and to prevent ara 

 extreme wafte or difperfion of it. Black readily receives and abforbs the 

 heat of the animal body ; and in this way tends to exhauft and difpcrie it. 

 White rrfle£ls and repels the rays of light and heat more than any other 

 color, and thus prevents and oppofcs their palTage ; and in this way, tends 

 to prefei wc and detain the cooflitu'ional heat of the animal body. Hence 

 the covering, which nature has alTigned to the earth in cold climates, is 

 fnow : By its color it becomes beff of all adapted to prevent the heat 

 from flowing out of the earth into the atmofpheie. And hence the cover- 

 ing of mofl ar-iimals in thefcvereft feafon, and country, is generally white; 

 the color which molt of all prelervcs the heat of the ' animal body, and 

 prevents its flov;ing out. In conformity to the fame law of naiurc, many 

 animals change their color at the approach of winter; and from black, 

 brown or grey, become white. Thisisthe cafe with the rabbits, toxcs, 

 bears, &c, at Hudfon's bay, RufTia, and Sibeiia. From the darker colors 

 •which they bear in fnmrner, they turn while at the approach of winter ; 

 and remain fo. until the rctutn of fpring. In fuch cafes, climate appears to 

 have a powerful and a fudden operation, to produce the colors ic reciuires. 



The change of color in man, is more flow and gradual : It is howevcf 

 1 certain and apparent. The white men who are much expofed to the heat 

 and rays of the fun, and to the iisfiiience of the wind, in hot fealons lofe 

 their whitenefs, and become brown or red. The inhabitants of - Europe 

 ■when they fettle in New Spain or in the Wcftlndia illands, foon loofe their 

 Avhitenefs, and become of a brownifh yellow. The Europeans who re 

 fide long in thcEeafl Indies, becoirie of the fame cream colored complex- 

 ipn. We have an accurate account of the efTect prociuced by climate in 

 South America, by Dr. Mitchell : '' The Spaniards v. ho have irihabitcd 

 >\merica under the torrid zone for any confideroble time, are become as 

 dark colored as our native Indians of Virginia, of which I myfeif have 

 J)een a witnefs."* An account from A irica, is equally authentic and ac- 

 curate. " There are feveral other fmall Portuguefe fettlements, and one of 

 fome note at Mitom.ba, a river in Sierra Leone. The people here called 

 Portuguefe, are principally perfons bred from a mixture of the firft Por- 

 tuguefe difcovcrers with the natives, and now become, in their coniplex- 

 ion, and woolly quality of their hair, pe;l(£f negrof s, retaining however, 



a fmattering of the Portuguefe language."t Here the operation of mix- 

 > 



* Phil. Tranf. No. 476. 



■f AecouDt of the trade of G. Britain 19 Africa, by aa African Merchant 



