80 INTBODl ' 11 



proved by something mote than a mere speculation, or presump- 

 tion, thai they are accidental." 



The constitutional temperaments of the different races, on which 



the author just quoted lays so much stress, seem to in 

 their capacity fur improvement. There variety in the 



white races ; while the other races are noted for a great apparent 

 uniformity, so thai to have seen <>n" of a race, you have seen the 

 whole. The dark races have a lese bility than 



the white. Dr. Mosely (Treatise on Tropical D 

 •■ Negroes are void of sensibility to a surprising degree. They are 

 not subject to nervous diseases. They sleep sound in every di 

 nor does any mental disturbance ever keep them awake. Tie v 

 hear chirurgical operations much heller than white people ; arid what 

 would be the cause of insupportable pain to a white man, a N 

 would almost disregard." The American dark races bear with 

 indifference tortures insupportable to a white man. Is it not pot 

 says Van Amringe, that the increased coloring matter in the skin 

 protects the subjacent nerves to a greateT extent against i sternal 

 impressions? He States, on what he considers good authority, that 

 the Negro expires less carbonic acid than the white man. " Hence 

 Africans seldom have fetid breath, but transpire the fetid matter, 

 somewhat modified, chiefly by the skin." This would explain the 

 greater amount of oily substance with which the black skin abounds, 

 by concentratine; in the integument a larger quantity of carbon, the 

 chief element of the fixed oils.* 



Dr. Prichard thinks that the liability of all the races to the same 

 diseases is an evidence of identity of species. Everybody knows 

 that some races are more liable than others to certain diseases. The 

 torpidity of the blacks under disease is well known to physicians who 

 have practised much amonj them ; the Negroes are more exempt 

 from nervous diseases and the yellow fever, but more subject to the 

 "yaws.'' If we regard all men of one species, simply because they 

 have the same diseases, we shall have to include the monkeys, cows, 

 horses, dogs, &c, in the human family, for they have consumption, 

 vaccine disease, glanders, hydrophobia, &c. It is known that epi- 



* It has been ascertained, abundantly, in the East, (according to Dr. 

 Allen, " on the Opium Trade,") that the effects of opium on the Xegro and 

 Indian appear rather on the digestive, circulating, and respiratory func- 

 tions, than in the cerebral and nervous system ; in the whites and Mongo- 

 lians, it acts more directly on the mind, though its effects on the body are 

 not lessened ; this accords with the alleged inferior development or sensi- 

 bility of the nervous system in the dark races. 



