248 A HISTORY OF 



fully peopled, and the natives are obliged to endure their situation 

 without a power of migration. It is there, consequently, that they 

 are in a manner tied down to feel all the severity of the heat ; and their 

 complexions take the darkest hue they are capable of receiving. We 

 need not, therefore, have recourse to any imaginary propagation, from 

 persons accidentally black, since the climate is a cause obvious and 

 sufficient to produce the effect. 



In fact, if we examine the complexion of different countries, we 

 shall find them darken in proportion to the heat of their climate, and 

 the shades gradually to deepen as they approach the line. Some na- 

 tions, indeed, may be found not so much tinged by the sun as others, 

 although they lie nearer the line. But this ever proceeds from some 

 accidental causes ; either from the country lying higher, and conse- 

 quently being colder ; or from the natives bathing oftener, and leading 

 a more civilized life. In general, it may be asserted, that as we ap- 

 proach the line, we find the inhabitants of each country grow browner, 

 until the colour deepens into perfect blackness. Thus, taking our 

 standard from the whitest race of people, and beginning with our own 

 country, which I believe bids fairest for the pre-eminence, we shall 

 find the French, who are more southern, a slight shade deeper than 

 we ; going farther down, the Spaniards are browner than the French ; 

 the inhabitants of Fez darker than they ; and the natives of Negro- 

 land the darkest of all. In what manner the sun produces this effect, 

 and how the same luminary which whitens wax and linen, should 

 darken the human complexion, is not easy to conceive. Sir Thomas 

 Brown first supposed that a mucous substance, which had something 

 of a vitriolic quality, settled under the reticular membrane, and grew 

 darker with heat. Others have supposed that the blackness lay in the 

 epidermis, or scarf-skin, which was burnt up like leather. But nothing 

 has been satisfactorily discovered upon the subject ; it is sufficient 

 that we are assured of the fact ; and that we have no doubt of the 

 sun's .tinging the complexion in proportion to its vicinity. 



But we are not to suppose that the sun is the only cause of dark- 

 ening the skin ; the wind, extreme cold, hard labour, or coarse and 

 sparing nourishment, are all found to contribute to this effect. We 

 find the peasants of every country, who are most exposed to the wea- 

 ther, a shade darker than the higher ranks of people. The savage 

 inhabitants of all places are exposed still more, and therefore contract 

 a still deeper hue, and this will account for the tawny colour of the 

 North American Indians. Although they live in a climate the same, 

 or even more northerly than ours, yet they are found to be of com- 

 plexions very different from those of Europe. But it must be con- 

 sidered that they live continually exposed to the sun ; that they uso 

 many methods to darken theii skins by art, painting them with red 

 ochre, and anointing them with the fat of bears. Had they taken, 

 for a succession of several generations, the same precautions to brighten 

 their colour that an European does, it is very probable that they would 

 '.n time come to have similar complexions, and perhaps dispute the 

 prize of beauty. 



The extremity of cold is not less productive of a tavny complexion 

 than that of heat. The natives of the arctic circle, as was ohsem-rf, 



