NATURAL HISTORY. 129 



ed as tawny as what we find it among the Laplanders. 

 Cold compresses, shrivels, and reduces within a nar- 

 row compass all the productions of nature. Hence 

 \ve find the Laplanders, who are perpetually exposed 

 to all the rigours of the most piercing cold, the most 

 diminutive of the human species. 



The most temperate climate is lietwecn the degrees 

 of forty and fifty. There we behold the human form in 

 its greatest perfection ; and there we ought to form 

 our ideas of the real and natural colour of man. Situ- 

 ated under this zone, the civilized countries are, 

 Georgia, Circassia, the Ukarine, European, Turkey, 

 Hungary, South Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France, 

 and the North of Spain. Of the latter, the inhabitants 

 are the most beautiful, and the most shapely in the * 

 world. 



As the first, and almost the sole cause of the co- 

 lour of mankind, we ought therefore to consider the 

 climate ; and though upon the skin the effects of 

 nourishment are trifling, when compared with those of 

 the air and soil, yet upon the form they are prodigious. 

 Food which is gross, unwholesome, or badly prepared, 

 has a strong and a natural tendency to produce a de- 

 generacy in the human species. Hence in all coun- 

 tries where the people fare wretchedly, they are more 

 ugly, and more deformed than their neighbours. 



The air and the soil have also great influences, not 

 only on the form of men, but on that of animals, and 

 of vegetables. In comparing the peasants who live 

 on hilly grounds, with those who live embosomed in 

 the neighbouring vallies, we find, that the former are 

 active, nimble, well-shaped, and lively ; and the 

 women generally handsome. On the contrary, the 



Vol. I. Q 



