MEMOIR OF CAMPER. 38 



morphosis, which would not be very agreeable to the 

 prejudices of many amongst us : it is that of the white 

 becoming piebald with black, as deep as ebony. He 

 had seen only one case of this himself, but he refers 

 to other instances which had occurred under the 

 observation of others. 



As to the efficient cause of the blackness of the 

 Negro, our author agrees with Aristotle and Galen 

 among the ancients, deservedly high authorities, and 

 Buffon and many others among the moderns, in 

 thinking, that it is owing to the great heat of the 

 climate which he inhabits ; and, in still more general 

 terms, he states, that it would appear that the tem- 

 perature of the climate which men inhabit is the 

 cause of the tint of the colour which their skin as- 

 sumes; and that, after a long sojourn under the 

 scorching sun, a white race of men would become 

 black, and, in opposite circumstances, a black race 

 would become white. This is a very simple and 

 natural, and, it must be allowed, plausible supposition. 

 We cannot, however, now enter upon this interesting 

 and disputed subject ; only we think it right, in a 

 single word, to warn our readers, that the point is 

 by no means considered as settled, even at the pre- 

 sent day, and that the mass of evidence, as well as 

 of authority, tends to throw considerable doubt on 

 the doctrine of the cause of colour as maintained by 

 Camper. 



Whether our author was right or wrong in his 

 speculations on this particular point, it is impossible 



