IN THE HUMAN SPECIES. 245 



In the natural history of our species, the Albinos have 

 not met with much better treatment than the Negroes; 

 for some have doubted whether they, as well as the latter, 

 belong to the same species with us *. The Negroes were 

 too black, the Albinos too white. They have been supposed 

 incapable of propagation. They are, in truth, not numerous 

 enough for them to breed together, and thus form a per- 

 manent variety ; but, that they can both beget and conceive, 

 is most abundantly proved. I know no instance of two being 

 matched together; but when they are paired with common 

 Negroes, the offspring is generally black, sometimes wliite. 



Of a white African woman, the parents, brothers, and 

 sisters were all black. She was married to a black man, and 

 had a black child. A white Negro with dirty white woolly 

 hair, reddish brown eyes, and very weak sight, was tlie son 

 of a white Negro. His mother, three brothers, and two 

 sisters were black : one sister was white like himself f. 



A classical writer X oii the natural history of man has 

 conceived that they labour under a disease, which he refers 

 to the cachexise, and considers as akin to leprosy; and this 

 opinion has had so much weight with Dr. Winterbottom, 

 that he never mentions the Albinos In his first volume, 

 which contains a description of the native Africans ; but 

 thrusts them into the second, among the diseases. 



I consider these views completely incorrect. The Indi- 

 viduals in question do not exhibit a single character of dis- 

 ease. All their functions are executed as in other persons. 

 They are born of healthy parents, occur among the robust 

 and hardy members of savage tribes, and a similar devia- 

 tion takes place in many wild animals. Mr. Jefferson 

 expressly mentions, of the seven cases which he saw in 

 American Creole Negroes, that all the individuals were 

 well formed, strong, and healthy. 



The first example mentioned by Dr. Winterbottom § is 



* Voltaire, Essai sur les McEurs, introduction : also Chap. 143. 

 f Winterbottom in lib. cit. 



% Blumenbach dc G. H. Far, Nat. sec. iii. ^ 77. He terms it « Varietas 

 gentilitia ex morbosa affectione." S L>^- *^'^' ''* ^^^' 



