Sect. I.] Zoology, I47 



ductions of the age. Tliis ingenious invention hai: 

 been extended and improved by M. JaulTret, a 

 distinguished naturahst of France. Beside these, 

 many others deserve notice for their successful la- 

 bours in illustrating particular parts of tlii,s exten- 

 sive field of inquiry. 



Much has been done during the last century 

 toward completing the natural history of Ma?i, 

 In the list of experimenters and authors on this 

 subject, Albinus, a Dutch naturalist, holds the first 

 place, with respect to time*. He was a very great 

 anatomist; and was one of the first who attended, 

 in a scientific manner, to the seat of colour in 

 human beings. Among the writers on this sub- 

 ject it is also proper to take notice of Dr. John 

 Mitchell, an English physician, who resided a 

 number of years in Virginia. His Essai/ on the 

 Causes of the different Colours of People is con- 

 sidered as a very honourable monument o^ his 

 learning and talents f. The next important pub- 

 lication on the same branch of natural history wa^' 

 by the celebrated John Reinhold ForsterJ, who 

 threw considerable light upon it. He was follow- 

 ed by the rev. Dr. Smith, president of the college 

 of New Jerse}^ who, in his ingenious and learned 

 Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion 



* To Marcellus Malpighi, in the seventeenth century, we crwe 

 the discovery of the fact that the colour of negi-oes resides in tJie 

 corpus miicosum. This fact was also known to J. N. Pechlin, as 

 appears by his work De Hahitu et Colore Ethiopum, b:c., published 

 in 1677. 



f Philosophical Transactions, vol. xliii. 



X See Forster's Observations, ^c. 4to, 1779' 

 L 2 



