406 HISTOR* OF 



eminence, we shall find the French, who are more southern, a 

 slight shade deeper than we ; going farther down, the Spaniards 

 are browner than the French ; the inhabitants of Fez darkei 

 than they ; and the natives of Negroland the darkest of all. In 

 what manner the sun produces this effect, and how the same 

 luminary which whitens wax and linen, should darken the human 

 complexion, is not easy to conceive. Sir Thomas Brown first 

 supposed, that a mucous substance, which had something of a 

 vitriolic quality, settled under the reticular membrane, and grew 

 darker with heat. Others have supposed that the blackness lay 

 in the epidermis, or scarf-skin, which was burnt up like leather. 

 But nothing has been satisfactorily discovered upon the subject ; 

 it is sufficient that we are assured of the fact ; and that we have 

 no doubt of the sun's tinging the complexion in proportion to its 

 vicinity. * 



* The colouring matter is understood to reside in a membranous network of 

 greater or less density exteudingover the surface of tliebody, called the rete 

 mueosiim. This is situated between the chorion or true skin and the cuticle. 

 The rete mucosura, or, as it is sometimes called, the cutaneous reticle, consists 

 of a fine texture of vessels, containing fluids of different shades iu the black and 

 tawny races. It seems, however, doubtful whether any such membrane for 

 the deposition of colouring fluid exists in white men, though the varieties of 

 fair and dark which we observe among them would seem to require some 

 organization of this kind ; nor does this theory sufficiently illustrate the occi- 

 sioTial instances of pied or spotted men. 



The human skin exhibits various shades of white, yellow, red, brown, and 

 black. There is every possible intermediate shade between the fairest white 

 and the deepest black, but no one gradatiou of colour is found iu all the indi. 

 viduals of any nation. Generally speaking, however, we may refer all the 

 national varieties of colour to the five following classes : — 



1. White, accompanied with redness of cheeks.* TMs characterizes all 

 the Europeans except the Laplanders, the Western Asiatics, and the 

 Northern Africans. Considerable variety will be found to exist in the colour 

 generally called white. The albino possesses a skin of a reddish or a dead 

 white colour, with yellowish white or milk-white hair, and red or very light 

 coloured eyes. The hair over the whole body is unusually soft and white, 

 not of the hoary colour of age, nor the light yellow or flaxen tint of the f;iir. 

 haired races. It is rather that sort of colour peculiar to a white horse. 

 These pecuUarities evidently arise from a deficiency iu the colouring prin- 

 cii)le, which is much the same iu the skin, hair, and eyes. The latter organs 

 ure iu the albinos peculiarly sensible to tlie stimulus of light, iu consequence 



• Ruddy complexions have been occasionally observed among some of the 

 otIiiT varieties. Among tin- mountaineers of boutau by t'apt. Turuur, and 

 the I'iSguiniaux by Lieut. Chiipell. 



