SO MEMOIR OF CAMPER. 



his attention to this department of science, and it 

 will be proper here to present our readers with a 

 brief analysis of these interesting labours. 



In the course of the year after his settlement in 

 Groningen, the Professor delivered a lecture to the 

 public, on the colour of the skin of the Negro. His 

 introductory remarks shew the enlarged character of 

 his views. " Every science," he observes, *' of what- 

 ever kind it may be, ought to have an object of ge- 

 neral interest, as well as one of particular utility. 

 Thus anatomy, which comprehends a knowledge of 

 the bodily frame, would, in my view, be only a ste- 

 rile study, if it were limited to what relates to me- 

 dicine and surgery, without embracing other sciences 

 also. It should never be forgotten, that it forms 

 the most beautiful and the most important branch 

 of natural history, and is that study which, of all 

 others, most impresses us with sentiments of admira- 

 tion and gratitude to the great First Cause." He 

 seems to have been directed to the immediate sub- 

 ject of this public lecture, not merely by its in- 

 trinsic interest, but because it was a fashion with 

 many about the middle of the last century, some of 

 whom bore the name even of philosophers, to depre- 

 ciate the character of the Negroes, and to question 

 whether they were derived from the same parent 

 stock. " The difference of the colour of the skin,** 

 he observes, " gives, at first sight, so marked a cha- 

 racter, that some writirs have thought that the Ne- 

 groes constitute a peculiar race, which has some 



