COMPLEXION 



571 



dark colour ; but, according to Pigafetta, the iris in 

 the Congo negro is frequently of a bluish tinge ; and it 

 is worthy of remark that, according to this author, 

 these negroes have not the thick lips of the Nubians. 

 The Gothic tribes are not more distinguished by their 

 fair complexion than by their blue eyes (cterulei 

 oculi), while the iris of the darker coloured Finn, ac- 

 cording to Linnaeus, is brown, and that of the still 

 darker Laplander, black. The colour of the eyes 

 also follows, in a great degree, in its changes, the 

 variations produced by age in the complexion. Blu- 

 menbach informs us that newly-born children, in Ger- 

 many, have, generally, blue eyes and light hair, both 

 of which become gradually of a darker hue, as the 

 complexion of the individual grows darker; and 

 Ligon, in his True and Exact History of Barbadoes 

 (p. 52), says that the children of the negroes there, 

 when they are born, " have the sight of their eyes 

 of a bluish colour, not unlike the eyes of a young 

 kitten ; but, as they grow older, they become black." 

 The most singular race of men, in point of com- 

 plexion, are the Albinos. (See Albinos.') A middle 

 complexion is produced where children are born 

 from parents of different races. If the offspring of 

 the darkest African and the fairest European inter- 

 marry successively with Europeans, in the fourth 

 generation they become white; when the circum- 

 stances are reversed, the result is reversed also. 

 Along with the successive changes of complexion is 

 also produced a change in the nature and colour of 

 the hair ; though, in some instances, the woolly hair 

 remains when the complexion has become nearly as 

 fair as that of brown people in Europe. It does 

 not, however, always happen that the offspring is 

 the intermediate colour between that of the respective 

 races to which the father and mother belong; it 

 sometimes resembles one parent only, while, per- 

 haps, in the second or third generation, the colour 

 of the other parent makes its appearance. White, 

 On the Regular Gradation of Man, mentions a 

 negress who had twins by an Englishman : one was 

 perfectly black ; its hair was short, woolly, and 

 curled : the other was white, with hair resembling 

 tliat of an European. And Parsons, in the Philoso- 

 phical Transactions, gives an account of a black man 

 who married an English woman : the child, the off- 

 spring of this marriage, was quite black. The same 

 author gives another instance, still more remarkable : 

 a black, in Gray's Inn, married a white woman, who 

 bore him a daughter, resembling the mother in fea- 

 tures, and as fair in all respects, except that the 

 right buttock and thigh were as black as the father's. 

 Philosophical Transactions (vol. i., p. 45). 



The generally-received opinion, concerning the 

 varieties of complexion, which are found in the dif- 

 ferent races of man throughout the globe, is, that 

 they are caused entirely by the influence of climate. 

 Respecting the primary colour of man, the supporters 

 of this opinion are not agreed. The opinion that 

 climate alone will account for the various com- 

 plexions of mankind is very plausible, and supported 

 by the well-known facts, that in Europe the com- 

 plexion grows darker as the climate becomes warmer ; 

 that the complexion of the French is darker than 

 that of the Germans, while the natives of the south 

 of France and Germany are darker than those of 

 the north ; that the Italians and Spaniards are darker 

 than the French, and the natives of the south of 

 Italy and Spain darker than those in the north. The 

 complexion, also, of the people of Africa, and the 

 East Indies, is brought forward in support of this 

 opinion ; and from these, and similar iacts, the 

 broad and general conclusion is drawn, that the 

 complexion varies in darkness as the heat of the 

 climate increases; and that, therefore, climate alone 



has produced this varioty. But it can be shown that 

 the exceptions to this general rule are very numer- 

 ous ; that people of dark complexions are found in 

 the coldest climates, people of fair complexions in 

 warm climates, people of the same complexion 

 throughout a great diversity of climate, and races 

 differing materially in complexion among the same 

 people. 



1. In the coldest climates of Europe, Asia, and 

 America, we find races of a very dark complexion. 

 The Laplanders have short, black, coarse hair; 

 their skins are swarthy, and the irides of their eyes 

 are black. According to Crantz, the Greenlanders 

 have small, black eyes ; their body is dark-grey all 

 over ; their face brown or olive ; and their hair coal 

 black. Crantz's History of Greenland (i., 132.) 



The complexion of the Samoides, and the other 

 tribes who inhabit the north of Asia, and of the 

 Esquimaux, is very similar to that of the Laplanders 

 and Greenlanders. Humboldt's observations on the 

 South American Indians illustrate and confirm the 

 same fact. If climate rendered the complexion of 

 such of these Indians as live under the torrid zone, 

 in the warm and sheltered valleys, of a dark hue, it 

 ought, also, to render, or preserve fair, the com- 

 plexion of such as inhabit the mountainous part of 

 that country; for, certainly, in point of climate, 

 there must be as much difference between the heat 

 of the valleys and of the mountains in South America 

 as there is between the temperature of southern and 

 northern Europe ; and yet this author expressly as- 

 sures us, " that the Indians of the torrid zone, who 

 inhabit the most elevated plains of the Cordillera of 

 the Andes, and those who, under the forty-fifth de- 

 gree of south latitude, live by fishing among the is- 

 lands of the archipelago of Chonos, have as coppery 

 a complexion as those who, under a burning climate, 

 cultivate bananas in the narrowest and deepest val- 

 leys of the equinoctial region. Political Essay on the 

 Kingdom of Neio Spain (i. 14, &c.). He adds, in- 

 deed, that the Indians of the mountains are clothed, 

 but he never could observe that those parts which 

 were covered were less dark than those which were 

 exposed to the air. The inhabitants, also, of Terra 

 del Fuego, one of the coldest climates in the world, 

 have dark complexions and hair. 



2. Fair-complexioned races are found in hot cli- 

 mates. Ulloa informs us that the heat of Guayaquil 

 is greater than at Carthagena ; and, by experiment, 

 he ascertained the heat of the latter place to be 

 greater than the heat of the hottest day at Paris ; 

 and yet, in Guayaquil, "notwithstanding the heat 

 of the climate, its natives are not tawny :" indeed, 

 they are " so fresh-coloured, and so finely-featured, 

 as justly to be styled the handsomest, both in the 

 province of Quito, and even in all Peru." Ulloa (i., 

 171). " In the forests of Guiana, especially near the 

 sources of the Orinoco, are several tribes of a whitish 

 complexion, the Guiacas, the Guagaribs, and 

 Arigues, of whom several robust individuals, ex- 

 hibiting no symptom of the asthenical malady which 

 characterizes Albinos, have the appearance of true 

 Mestizos. Yet these tribes have never mingled with 

 Europeans, and are surrounded with other tribes of a 

 dark-brown hue." The inliabitants of Boroa, a tribe 

 in the heart of Araucania, are white, and, in their 

 features and complexion, very like Europeans. 

 Even in Africa, darkness of complexion does not 

 increase with the heat of the climate in all instances : 

 the existence of comparatively fair races in this 

 quarter of the globe is noticed by Ebn Haukal, an 

 Arabian traveller of the tenth century, and has been 

 confirmed by subsequent travellers. 



3. The same complexion is found over immense 

 tracts of country, comprehending all possible varie- 



2 A 2 



