1-28 NATURAL HISTORY. 



rather less violent, as on the eastern coasts of Africa, they 

 arc of a shade more light. When it begins to be somewhat 

 more temperate, as in Barbary, in India, in Arabia &o. 

 they are only brown ; and, when it is altogether tem- 

 perate, as in Europe and Asia, they are white. These 

 varieties are wholly owing to their various modes of 

 living. All the Tartars, for example, are tawny, while 

 the Europeans, who live in the same latitude, are 

 white. Of this difference the reasons seem to be, 

 that the former are always exposed to the air ; that 

 they have no towns, no fixed habitations ; that they 

 sleep upon the earth, and live coarsely in every re- 

 spect. These circumstances alone are sufficient to 

 render them less white than the Europeans, to whom 

 nothing is wanting which may render life comfortable 

 and agreeable. Why are the Chinese more white 

 than the Tartars, whom they resemble in all the fea- 

 tures of the visage? It is because they live in towns, 

 because they are civilized, because they are provided 

 with every expedient for defending themselves from 

 the injuries of the weather, to which the Tartars are 

 continually exposed. 



When cold becomes extreme, however, it produces 

 some effects similar to those of excessive heat. The 

 Samoeids, the Laplanders, the Greenlanders, are very 

 tawny ; and it is even asserted, as we have already 

 observed, that among the Greenlanders there are men 

 as black as those of Africa. Violent cold, and violent 

 heat, produce the same effect upon the skin ; for 

 these two causes act by one quality, which they pos- 

 sess in common. This quality is dryness ; and as it 

 is a quality of which intense cold is equally productive 

 as intense heat, so by the former, as well as by the 

 latter, the skin may be dried up, altered, and render- 



