DISTRIBUTION OP THE HUMAN RACE. 599 



which have an obvious and marked effect upon animal and vegetable forms, however 

 little their operation is understood. Some of these varieties are transient, but others 

 become fixed and permanent in the race, and are so optically striking, as in several cases 

 to suggest the idea of a specific difference, where the species is identical. Now, the 

 question to be considered in relation to man is, whether the diversities which he exhibits 

 in different parts of the globe are compatible with his race coming under the denomination 

 of a species, having a common ancestry ; or whether it forms a genus including several 

 tribes, having a general resemblance, but so characteristically different as to lead the 

 philosophical investigator to the verdict, that the diverging streams of humanity have 

 originated independent of each other, and have not proceeded from the same fountain- 

 head. 



In prosecuting this inquiry, one method to be adopted is to review the principal 

 external differences observable among mankind, as to complexion, structure, and stature ; 

 and examine, whether analogous diversities appear among the lower animals within the 

 limits of the same species. If it is ascertained that corresponding phenomena to the 

 human variations occur in the case of animals belonging to an identical species, the chief 

 objection is obviated to the unity and common origin of the human kind. 



1. The most obvious distinction displayed by mankind is that of colour, in relation to 

 the skin, hair, and eyes, which, with few exceptions, are well known to have a certain 

 correspondence, intimating their dependence on a common cause. Thus light-coloured 

 hair is very generally in alliance with light blue or grey eyes ; but a relation of the 

 complexion of the skin to the hue of the hair is still more invariable. Persons of light 

 hair have a fair and transparent skin, which assumes a ruddy tint by exposure to the 

 light and heat of the sun, while the complexion of black-haired individuals is of a darker 

 cast, and acquires a bronze shade in proportion to the intensity of the solar influence 

 admitted to it. The dark-haired women of Syria and Barbary are indeed frequently very 

 white ; but this is owing to the careful avoidance of exposure to the effect of climate, which 

 Prichard calls, a being " bleached by artificial protection from light, or at least from the 

 solar rays." He discriminates three principal varieties of mankind, taking the colour of 

 the hair as the leading character, which he styles the melanic, the xanthous, and the 

 leucous. The melanic or black variety includes all individuals or races who have black 

 or very dark hair ; the xanthous or fair class embraces those who have either brown, 

 auburn, yellow, flaxen, or red hair ; and the leucous or white variety comprises those 

 who are commonly called albinos, whose hair is either pure white or cream-coloured. 



The great majority of the human race belong to the melanic or black-haired variety, 

 the corresponding hue of the skin being pronounced by Prichard the natural and original 

 complexion of the human species. This hue varies from the deepest black to a copper and 

 olive colour, and to a much lighter shade. The Senegal Negros are jet black, and the 

 natives of Malabar, with other nations of India, are nearly so. In some races, the black 

 combines with red, and in others with yellow, as in the instance of the copper and olive 

 coloured tribes of America, Africa, and Asia ; and the same indigenous population 

 furnishes examples of great discrepancy as to the character of the tint. " The great 

 difference of colour," says Bishop Heber, of the Hindoos, " between different natives struck 

 me much. Of the crowd by whom we were surrounded, some were black as Negros, 

 others merely copper-coloured, and others little darker than the Tunisines, whom I have 

 seen at Liverpool. It is not merely the differences of exposure, since this variety of tint 

 is visible in the fishermen who are naked all alike. Nor does it depend on caste, since 

 very high caste Brahmins are sometimes black, while Pariahs are comparatively fair. It 

 seems, therefore, to be an accidental difference, like that of light and dark complexions in 

 Europe; though where so much of the body is exposed to sight, it becomes more 



