*CT. XXXIX. 5. GENERATION. 5*3 



living filament to fele<5l and combine them with it- 

 felf. There is a fimilar qntfonmii of effect in rc- 



fped to the colour of the progeny produced be- 

 tween a white man, and a black woman, which, if 

 I am well informed, is always of the mulatto kind, 

 or a mixture of the two ; which may perhaps be 

 imputed to the peculiar form of the particles of 

 nutriment fupplied to the embryon by the mother 

 at the early period of its exiftence, and their pecu- 

 liar ilimulus; as this effect, like that of the mule 

 progeny above treated of, is uniform and confident, 

 and cannot therefore be afcribed to the imagination 

 of either of the parents. 



Dr. Thunberg obferves, in his Journey to the 

 Cape of Good Hope, that there are fome families, 

 which have defcended from blacks in the female 

 kne for three generations. The firft generation pro- 

 ceeding from an European, who married a tawny 

 Have, remains tawny, but approaches to a white com- 

 plexipn y but ihe children of the third generation, 

 Anixed with Europeans, become quite white, and 

 are often remarkably beautiful. V. i. p. 112. 



When the embryon has produced a placenta, and 

 furnifhed itfelf wiih veiFels for [election of nutri- 

 tious particles, and for oxygcnation of them, no 

 great change in its form or colour is likely to be 

 produced by the particles of fuftenancc it now takes 

 from the fluid, in which it is immerfed ; becaufe 

 it has now acquired organs to alter or new combine 

 them. Hence it continues to grow, whether this 

 fluid, in which it fwims, be formed by the uterus 

 or by any other cavity of the body, as in extra- 

 uterine. geftation ; and which would feem to be pro- 

 duced by the ilimulus of the fetus on the fides of 

 the cavity, where it is found, as mentioned before. 

 And thirdly, there is ftiJl lefs reafon to expect any 

 unnatural change to happen to the child after its 

 birth from the difference of the milk it now takes ; 



beeaufe 



