OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 447 



tlon at all ; and accordingly we find that there is a slender 

 mixture of truth in these statements ; but it is so enveloped 

 in a thick cloud of error, and so concealed by misrepresenta- 

 tion and exaggeration, that we do not recognize it without 

 difficulty. The colour of Europeans nearly follows the geo- 

 graphical positions of countries : this part of the world is 

 occupied almost entirely by a white race, of which the indi- 

 viduals are fairer in cold latitudes, and more swarthy or sun- 

 burnt in warm ones : thus, the French may be darker than 

 the English, the Spaniards than the French, and the Moors 

 than the Spaniards. In the same way, where different parts 

 of a country differ much in latitude and in temperature, the 

 inhabitants may be browner in the south than the north : 

 thus, the women of Granada are said to be more swarthy 

 than those of Biscay, and the southern than the northern 

 Chinese, &;c. For a similar reason the same race may vary 

 slightly in colour in different countries. The Jews, for ex- 

 ample, are fair in Britain and Germany, browner in France 

 and Turkey, swarthy in Portugal and Spain, olive in Syria 

 and Chaldea. An English sailor, who had been for some 

 years in Nukahiwah, one the Marquesas islands, had been so 

 changed in colour, that he was scarcely to be distinguished 

 from the natives *. 



These diversities are produced by the climate, as I have 

 already explained. The effect goes off if the cause be re- 

 moved : it terminates in the individual, and is never trans- 

 mitted to the offspring, as I shall prove most incontrover- 

 tibly presently. 



Moreover, the effect Is confined to the parts of the body 

 actually exposed to the sun and air. Those which remain 

 covered retain all their natural whiteness. Mr. Abel found 

 this strikingly exemplified in his Chinese journey. " The 

 dark copper-colour of those who were naked, contrasted so 

 strongly with the paleness of those who were clothed, that 

 it was difficult to conceive such different hues could 

 be the consequence of greater or less exposure to the 

 same degree of solar and atmospheric influence : but all 



Langsdorff's Voyages^ ^c, v. i. p. 90. 



