v INTRODUCTION. 



ent regions, we must suppose that they were born with the 

 colour, as well as the other attributes, suited to the climates 

 of the countries which they were to inhabit. It accords with 

 this supposition, that the Negro remains always black, even 

 in the highest latitudes to which he has been carried ; and 

 that the black races of the Eastern Islands retain the colour 

 proper to them in the mild temperature of Van Diemen's 

 Land. The Mongolian, even in the coldest regions of North- 

 ern Asia, retains the hue distinctive of his family, but with a 

 continually deepening shade as he approaches to the inter- 

 tropical countries. The native of China, of a dull yellow 

 tint at Pekin, is at Canton nearly as dark as a Lascar. The 

 American Indian retains his distinctive copper hue amid the 

 snows of Labrador ; but, on the shores of the Caribbean Sea, 

 becomes nearly as black as an African. 



Temperature likewise affects the size and form of the body. 

 The members of the Caucasian group towards the Arctic 

 Circle are of far inferior bulk of body to the natives of tem- 

 perate countries. The Central Asiatics, in elevated plains, 

 are sturdy and short, the result of an expansion of the 

 chest ; the Hindoos are of slender form and low physical 

 powers, so that they have almost always yielded to the 

 superior force of the northern nations, from the first in- 

 vasion of the Macedonians, to the ultimate establishment 

 of European power in the Peninsula. The Negro, on the 

 other hand, in the hottest and most pestilential regions of 

 the habitable earth, where the Caucasian either perishes, or 

 becomes as slender as a stripling, is of a strength and sta- 

 ture which would be deemed great in any class of men, 

 affording a strong presumption in favour of the opinion of 

 the distinctness of his race, and its special adaptation to the 

 region in which it has been placed. 



In quadrupeds, the effects of temperature are everywhere 

 observable in the covering provided for their body, whether 

 wool or hair, and which, in the same species, is always more 

 abundant in the colder than in the warmer countries. In 



