188 LECTURE VII. 



pean, it cannot be assei'ted that an European can be so browned 

 by the sun^ by exposure, or by affections of tbe liver, as to ac- 

 quire even a ligbt Negro skin. The equahsed colour both in 

 the covered as well as in the exposed parts, independently of 

 other characters, makes a distinction between them very easy." 



As regards the acuteness of the senses, the Negro stands 

 far below the white race, and by no means confirms the opinion 

 which attributes to savages and peoples living in a state of 

 nature more acute senses. The eyes are frequently rather 

 dim, and the flattened cornea seems rather to favour long- 

 sightedness than short-sightedness. Smell, taste, or hearing 

 do not seem highly developed. The Negro, however, shows 

 great talent for plain cookery and vulgar music, so that in 

 America nearly all the cooks and musicians are men of colour. 

 Touch is not very delicate, the finger cufhions being less de- 

 veloped in the black ; " but," says Pruner, " the most re- 

 markable phenomenon relates to coencesthesis , as regards the 

 Negroes apparent insensibility to pain. We have never seen 

 the least spontaneous expression of pain ; in the hospitals we 

 see Negroes suffering from the gravest diseases cowering on 

 their couchel without taking any notice of the attending phy- 

 sicians. As a slave, he is more communicative, without, how- 

 ever, exhibiting greater sensibility to pain. Mishaps, or bad 

 treatment will draw from the Negress, the child and even the 

 adult Negro, an abundant flow of tears, but physical pain never. 

 The Negro frequently resists surgical operations, but having 

 once agreed to submit, he fixes his eye on the instrument and 

 the hand of the surgeon without the least mark of pain or im- 

 patience, though his lips become blanched and the perspiration 

 runs down his body during the operation. As we see, the 

 Negro is a born stoic, certainly more from disposition than 

 from habit or education." 



Even with regard to the development of the Negro child, I 

 can do no better than follow this experienced Egyptian physi- 

 cian. " The Negro child," says Pruner-Bey, " is born without 

 prognathism, but with a totality of features which, though 

 characteristic for the soft parts, are not yet expressed in the 

 skull. The Negro, the Hottentot, the Australian, the New 



