OF THK HUMAN SPECIES. 'ISJ 



by an English author *, who asserts that Creoles are bora 

 with a different complexion and cast of countenance from 

 the children of the same parents brought forth in Europe. 

 In opposition to this statement, from one who had not seen 

 the facts, I place the authority of Long, a most respectable 

 eye-witness, who, in his History of Jamaica, affirms that 

 " the children born in England have not, in general lovelier 

 or more transparent skins than the offspring of white parents 

 in Jamaica.'' The " austrum spirans vultus et color," which 

 the above mentioned acute and learned naturalist ascribes 

 to the Creole, is merely the acquired effect of the climate, 

 and not a character existing at birth. 



" Nothing," says Dr. Prichard f, " seems to hold true 

 more generally, than that all acquired conditions of body, 

 whether produced by art or accident, end with the life of 

 the individual in whom they are produced. Many nations 

 mould their bodies into unnatural forms ; the Indians flatten 

 their foreheads ; the Chinese women reduce their feet to one 

 third of their natural dimensions ; savages elongate their ears ; 

 many races cut away the prepuce. We frequently mutilate 

 our domestic animals by removing the tail or ears, and our 

 own species are often obliged by disea-se to submit to the 

 loss of limbs. That no deformity, or mutilation of this 

 kind is hereditary, is so plainly proved by every thing around 

 us, that v/e must feel some surprise at the contrary opinion 

 having gained any advocates. After the operation of circum- 

 cision has prevailed for three or four thousand years, the 

 Jews are still born with prepuces, and still obliged to sub- 

 mit to a painful rite. Docked horses and cropped dogs 

 bring forth young with entire ears and tails. But for this 

 salutary huv," what a frightful spectacle would every race of 

 animals exhibit ! The mischances of all preceding times 

 would overwhelm us with their united weight, and the cata- 

 logue would be continually increasing, until the universe? 

 instead of displaying a spectacle of beauty and pleasure' 



* IlA vv re Es WORTH, in CoUcdionof Foijugei;, v. iii p. 374 . 

 f Disp. inaug. 



