38 



COMPLEXION. 



Com- blackness of complexion, and crispature of hair, which 



yle non. distinguished the Ethiopians, to then* vicinity to the 



r sun, he attributes the fair complexion and yellow hair 



pf the northern nations of Europe, to the coldness and 



moisture of the climate under which they lived. 



This hypothesis, so conformable to the most notori- 

 ous and well-established facts, and which seemed to be 

 firmly grounded on philosophical principles', remained 

 for a long time undoubted and undisturbed, amidst that 

 superior information and more strict and scrupulous 

 mode of reasoning, which entirely destroyed, or great- 

 ly modified, the conjectures and opinions of the an- 

 cients on other points of physical science ; it was even 

 strengthened among the moderns, by the circumstance, 

 that religion was supposed to lend its authority to its 

 truth. A disposition and tendency to call it in ques- 

 tion, and certainly an absolute rejection and disbelief 

 of it, cannot, we apprehend, be traced farther back than 

 the end of the 17th century ; and what is worthy of 

 remark, one of the first who maintained that climate 

 alone could not produce the negro blackness, was Mr 

 Boyle, — a name which ought to secure this opinion 

 equally, and at once, from the charge of want qf phi- 

 losophy and want of religion. Boyle's Works, abrid- 

 ged by Shaw — Experiments and Observations on Colour, 

 vol. ii. p. 42. 



The full and methodical discussion of this curious 

 ana important subject, requires that we should call in 

 the aid of physiology, as well as of the geographical 

 history of man ; and that we should, in the first place, 

 endeavour to ascertain the seat of colour in the human 

 body ; secondly, that we should examine the different 

 hypotheses wh^ch have been thrown out, to account for 

 the immediate cause of colour ; the varieties of human 

 complexion ought next to be collected and classed; 

 and, finally, the influence of climate in producing these 

 varieties, must be investigated and ascertained. 

 On the seat I. The human skin, till the time of Malpighi, was sup- 

 of colour in posed to consist only of two parts; the cuticle, epider- 

 ulj!. lumaa m * s > or scarf-skin, and the cutis or real skin ; but that 

 anatomist, about the middle of the 17th century, disco- 

 vered between these a cellular texture, soft and gelati- 

 nous, to which the names of rete mucosum, and corpus 

 reticulare, have been given. He demonstrated the ex- 

 istence of this membrane at first in the tongue, and in 

 the inner parts of the hands and feet ; but by his sub- 

 sequent labours, and also by those of Ruysch and other 

 anatomists, it has been proved to exist between the 

 epidermis and the cutis in all parts of the human body. 

 Malpighi, on the discovery of this membrane, offer- 

 ed a conjecture respecting the cause of the colour of 

 negroes : he supposed that this membrane contained a 

 juice or fluid of a black colour, from which their black- 

 ness arose : the actual existence of a black pigment has 

 been since ascertained, but has never been procured in 

 Sufficient quantity to admit of minute and analytical 

 examination. 



The rete mucosum is of very different colours in dif- 

 ferent natiqns ; arid the difference of its colour so com- 

 pletely agrees with the difference of their complexions, 

 that there can be no doubt that it is the sole, or at least 

 the principal sea,t of the colour of the human complex- 

 ion. Its thickness varies m different parts of the 

 body; and the depth of its colour, for the most 



body. 



part, is in proportion to its thickness. Where the cu- 

 ticle is thickest, there it is also found of the firmest 

 and thickest texture ; and it is most easily detected in 

 the palms of the hands, and in the inner parts of the 

 fingers, and on the soles of the feet. There appears, 

 however, one exception to this general rule. Accord- 

 ing to Kaaic, " in pudendis vero tenue, sed fuscum 

 ita, ut negares de Europaei cute detractum esse." Per- 

 spiralio dicta Hippoerati, per Universum corpus Anato- 

 mice illustrata, Auctore Abrahamo Kaaic, M.D. Lug. Bat. 

 1738, p. 21. 



Although this circumstance of the different colours 

 of the rete mucosum corresponding exactly with the 

 different complexions of the human race, seems satis- 

 factorily to fix the seat of colour in that membrane, 

 yet some authors are of opinion, that the black com- 

 plexion of the negroes arises, partly at least, from the 

 cuticle. This opinion is particularly maintained by Dr 

 Mitchell, in his " Essay on the Causes qf the different 

 Colours qf Persons in different Climates." Phil. Trans, 

 abridged by Martyn, vol. x. p. 926. " The cuticle of 

 negroes," he says, " is much thicker than it is in peo- 

 ple of a fan complexion ; and hence, it cannot so easi- 

 ly or perfectly transmit the colour of the cutis through 

 it." But it is evident, that even allowing the fact on 

 which this reasoning is founded to be true, namely, 

 that the cuticle of negroes is much thicker than that of 

 fair complexioned people, it will rather militate against, 

 than support the inference which he draws from it ; 

 since, if the thickness of the cuticle weakens its power 

 of transmitting colour, the black colour of the rete mu- 

 cosum can have little or no effect in producing the black 

 complexion of the negroes. 



But though the cuticle cannot, in this manner, give 

 ris^e to the colour of the human complexion, there is 

 reason to suppose, that in some degree, and in some 

 cases, it contributes to this effect. Kaaic maintains, 

 that this membrane, even when separated from the rete 

 mucosum,- is found to possess different colours in dif- 

 ferent nations ; and that it also varies in men living 

 under the same climate. That this variation does not 

 arise entirely from different degrees of exposure to the 

 sun and ah, clearly appears from an experiment which 

 this anatomist made. He macerated the cuticles of 

 twins, and separated the rete mucosum ; the colour of 

 the cuticles he found to differ in a considerable degree. 



The black colour of the negroes is destroyed by se- 

 veral causes ; indeed whatever destroys the rete muco- 

 sum destroys it, as wounds, burns, &c. and as this mem- 

 brane is never reproduced, the scar remains white ever 

 afterwards. Hawkins, in his Travels into the Interior 

 qf Africa, (p. 120.) mentions, that the land-cloud of 

 Africa, called by the Portuguese ferrino, changes the 

 black colour of the negroes into a dusky grey ; accord- 

 ing to some Qther authors, the change is into a red cop- 

 per colour. At Darfur, a species of leprosy prevails 

 among the natives, winch they call borras, and which 

 gives them the appearance of being pie-hald, changing 

 to a white colour parts both of their skin and their 

 hair. * 



There are also several instances of the colour of ne- 

 groes being either entirely or partially changed from 

 the operation of causes, which cannot be detected ox 

 explained. A boy who was born in Virginia, of black 



Com. 

 plexion. 



• jBrowne's Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria, p. 332 There are several kinds of fish in the West Indies, which, when eaten, 



alter the colour of the negro. Dr Clark of Dominica particularly notices this: — " A singular effect ef fish poison, is to remove the 

 epidermis in patches or spots, about the hands and feet, which continue white in people of colour, and of a pale yellow colour in 

 white people, for life — Medical Facta, vol. vii. And Dr Jsert saw a negro, in his travels through Guinea, whose hands and feet 

 ■^cre perfectly whit?; in consequence of a severe illness, probably occasioned by eating poisonous fish— Reite nach Guinea, p. 175. 



