OF THE HUMAN RACE. 207 



the bison in a state of lameness ; and the Siberian argali with the sheep which 

 is said to have sprung 1 from it. Compare the modern Romans with the an- 

 cient ; the low cunning and servile temper of too many of the Greek tribes of 

 the present day, that still bend to and kiss the Ottoman rod, with the noble 

 courage and patriotic enthusiasm of their forefathers, who drove back the 

 tyrant of Persia, and his million of men across the Hellespont, and dashed 

 to pieces the proud bridge with which he boasted of having conquered the 

 billows. 



It is in reality from long and deeply rooted habit alone that the black, red, 

 and olive colour of the Ethiopian, American, and Moguls is continued in the 

 future lineage for so many generations after their removal into other parts of 

 the world ; and that nothing will, in general, restore the skin to its original 

 fairness but a long succession of intermixtures with the European variety, 

 It is a singular circumstance that the black colour appears to form a less per- 

 manent habit than the red or olive ; or, in other words, the colour chiefly pro- 

 duced by the action of the sun's colorific rays, than that produced by the 

 action of its calorific rays : for the children of olive and copper-coloured parents 

 exhibit the parental hue from the moment of birth ; but in those of blacks it 

 is usually six, eight, or ten months before the black pigment is fully secreted. 

 We also sometimes find this not secreted at all, whence the anomaly of white 

 negroes : and sometimes only in interrupted lines or patches, whence the 

 anomaly of spotted negroes ; and we have even a few rare cases of negroes 

 in America who, in consequence of very severe illness, have had the whole 

 of the black pigment absorbed and carried off, and a white pigment diffused 

 in its stead. In other words, we have instances of a black man being sud- 

 denly bleached into a white man. These instances are indeed of rare occur- 

 rence : but they are sufficient to show the absurdity of the argument for a 

 plurality of human stocks or species, from a mere difference in the colour of 

 the skin ; an argument thus proved to be altogether superficial, and which we 

 may gravely assert to be not more than skin-deep. 



It is in consequence of this power in the system, of secreting a dark-co- 

 loured pigment under particular circumstances, that we not un frequently see 

 the skin of a very fair woman, when in a state of pregnancy* changed to a 

 deep tawny, and almost to a black ; and it is hence that the black pigment of 

 the eye is perpetually maintained and replenished.* 



Dr. Wells gave a paper to the Royal Society, which was read April 1, 1813, 

 containing an account of a woman (Harriet Tresh) " whose left shoulder, 

 arm. and hand are as black as the blackest African's, while all the rest of the 

 skin is very white. She is a native of Sussex, and the cause she assigns is, 

 that her mother set her foot upon a lobster during her pregnancy." So that 

 we have not only instances of blacks being suddenly bleached, but of whites 

 being made more or less black. In like manner, confined birds sometimes 

 become wholly black ; and are said to become so occasionally in the course 

 of a single night. So the male kestrel, from being barred on the tail feathers, 

 becomes wholly ash-coloured except at the end; and the heron, gull, and 

 others, whose tail is white when matured, are for the first two years mottled. 



IV. But it is probable that a very great part of the more striking distinc- 

 tions we have noticed, and almost all the subordinate variations occasionally 

 to be met with, are the result of a MORBID AND HEREDITARY AFFECTION. The 

 vast influence which this recondite but active cause possesses over both the 

 body and the mind are known in some degree to every one from facts that 

 are daily presenting themselves to us. We see gout, consumption, scro- 

 fula, leprosy, propagated on various occasions, and madness and fatuity and 

 hypochondriacai affections as frequently. Hence the unhappy race of Albi- 

 noes, and whole pedigrees of white negroes; hence the pigmy stature of 

 some families, and the gigantic size of others. 



Even- when accident, or a cause we cannot discover, has produced a preter- 

 natural conformation or defect in a particular organ, it is astonishing to 



* Camper's Lect. on Comn. Anat. in regard to the art of Drawing. 



