156 SUPPLEMENTAL HISTORY OF MAN. 



sists of a fine texture of vessels, containing fluids of 

 different shades in the black and tawny races. It 

 seems, however, doubtful whether any such mem- 

 brane 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 re- 

 quire some organization of this kind ; nor does this 

 theory sufficiently illustrate the occasional 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 gradation 

 of colour is found in all the individuals 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*. 

 This 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 yel- 

 lowish 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 



* Ruddy complexions have been occasionally observed among 

 some of the other varieties. Among the mountaineers of Bootan 

 by Capt. Turner, and the Esquimaux by Lieut. Chapell. 



