COMPLEXION. 



41 



Com- nected with the complexion ; and, therefore, although 

 piex iou. j n describing tlie varieties we have briefly noticed the 

 """"V""' difference in its colour, it may be proper to add a few 

 particulars on this subject. In proportion to the thin- 

 ness of the skin, and the fairness of the complexion, 

 the hair is soft, fine, and of a white colour : this ob- 

 servation holds good not only in the varieties which 

 have been described, but also in the Albinos. Next to 

 " them in fairness of complexion is the Gothic race, the 

 rutilce comce of whom were a distinguishing character- 

 istic, even in the time of the Romans. The Celtic 

 tribes are not so fair as the Gothic, and their hah is 

 darker and more inclined to curl ; so that the observa- 

 tion which Tacitus makes respecting the Silures still 

 applies to them, Colorafi vultus, torticrines. But though 

 the colour of the hair is evidently connected with the 

 complexion, yet its tendency to curl does not appear to 

 be so. The brown complexioned Celts have curled hair; 

 the Mongolian and American varieties, of a much 

 darker complexion, have hair of a darker colour, but 

 long and straight. Among that portion of the Malay 

 variety, which inhabits the South Sea islands, soft and 

 curled hair is frequently met with. 



The hair of the New Caledonians is crisped ; that 

 of the negroes woolly. The difference between these 

 has been accurately marked by Forster. " The hair of 

 the negroes," he says, " is not only frizzled, but each 

 particular hair is found to be extremely thin, and pro- 

 ceeding from a root remarkably smaller than that ob- 

 served in other human hair." This thinness he attri- 

 butes partly to climate, but principally to the copious- 

 ness of perspiration not being checked by the use of 

 oil. " The inhabitants of Otaheite," &c. he adds, 

 " never have woolly hair, because they prevent too co- 

 pious perspiration by the application of oil." This opi- 

 nion, however, does not seem to be well-founded, since 

 Winterbottom asserts that the custom of anointing with 

 oil is universal among the Africans. Forster's Obsei va- 

 tions marie during a Voyage round the World; p. 239. 

 Wilder •bottom, vol. i. p. 192. 

 lolour of The colour of the eye is also connected with the 

 he eye. complexion. In the Africans, Professor Soemmering 

 remarks, that the tunica adnata, or white of the eye, 

 is not so resplendently white as in Europeans ; but ra- 

 ther of a yellowish brown, something similar to what 

 occurs in the jaundice. The iris in the negroes, in ge- 

 neral, is of a very dark colour; but, according to Pe- 

 gafeltu, the iris in the Congo negro is frequently of a 

 bluish tinge; and it is worthy of remark, that, accord- 

 ing to this author, these negroes have not the thick 

 lips of the Nubians. The Gothic tribes are not more 

 distinguished by then- fair complexion than by their 

 blue eyes (ccernlei oadi) ; while the his of the darker 

 coloured Fin, according to Linnaeus, is brown, and that 

 of the still darker Laplander, black. The colour of 

 the eyes also follows, in a great degree, in its changes, 

 the variations produced by age in the complexTon! 

 Blumenbach informs us, that newly born children in 

 Germany have generally blue eyes and light hair, both 

 of which become gradually of a darker hue, as the 

 complexion of the individual grows darker ; and Li- 

 gon, in his " True and Exact History of Barbadoes," 

 p. 52. says, that the children of the negroes there, when 

 they are born, " have the sight of then- eyes of a blu- 



ish colour, not unlike the eyes of a young kitten, but 

 as they grow older they become black." 



The most singular race of men in point of complex- 

 ion, are the Albinos. It is doubtful whether Pliny 

 referred to them under the name Leucsethiopes, as he 

 merely gives the name ; but from the manner of the 

 term, it is probable he did. Tellezius, quoted by Lu- 

 dolphus, in his Ethiopic History, (lib. i. cap. 14.), is 

 among tlie first of modern writers who notices them : 

 he says they were not uncommon in Abyssinia, where 

 they were regarded with abhorrence, and their com- 

 plexion was attributed to disease. Dampier and Wa- 

 fer seem next to have noticed them in the isthmus of 

 Darien. Knox, in his account of Ceylon, describes the 

 Bedahs there as a kind of Albinos ; but subsequent in- 

 formation respecting this island, though it proves this 

 race to be very different from the other inhabitants, by 

 no means confirms the account of Knox. Argensola, 

 in I'Histoire d* la Conquete des Ides Mnluques, vol. i. 

 p. 148. describes some of the inhabitants of these is- 

 lands as Albinos, being as fair as Germans, with very 

 weak eyes ; and some of the older accounts of Chili 

 and Florida, which mention the blue-eyed cessares of 

 the former country, and the acansas of the latter, if 

 they can be depended upon, would seem to prove that 

 Albinos once existed in these parts of America. But 

 this singular race of men is most commonly met with 

 in Africa ; and the African Albino has been most mi- 

 nutely examined and described. 



Hawkins, in his Travels in the Interior of Africa, 

 p. 1 1 6, describes the hair of the. Albinos as red, or ra- 

 ther ashes coloured, sometimes approaching to yellow ; 

 and though soft, still preserving the woolly appearance 

 of the negro. " The pupil of their eyes," he says, " is 

 white." In the colony of Sierra Leone, Winterbot- 

 tom saw a girl about nine years old, who had been 

 born in Nova Scotia ; her parents belonged to the Nova 

 Scotian blacks, who were afterwards sent to that part 

 of Africa. She had all the features of the negro ; her 

 hair was woolly, the colour of a dirty white ; her skin 

 differed from that of most Albinos, for though it equal- 

 led in whiteness the skin of a European, yet it had not 

 that disagreeable appearance and texture which distin- 

 guish this singular race of people. She also differed 

 from the generality of them in possessing stronger eyes, 

 though the colour of them was somewhat between a 

 red and light hazel. The same author saw another girl, 

 of nearly the same age, born of black parents ; her 

 skin was of an unpleasant dead-looking white, pretty 

 smooth, but beginning to assume a cracked appearance : 

 this character of the skin is more distinct in the Al- 

 binos as they grow up ; it then becomes remarkably 

 coarse and wrinkled, dry and harsh to the touch, and 

 marked with deep furrows. In this state of the skin, 

 it is very susceptible to the action of the sun, which 

 not only cracks it, but sometimes even occasions it to 

 bleed : it is also very susceptible to the bites of insects. 



The eyes of the Albinos are always deprived, in a 

 greater or less degree, of their colouring matter, as 

 well as the rete mucosum ; the iris is sometimes red, 

 and sometimes of a reddish brown colour ; the pupil 

 has the same tinge, and also the edges of the tarsi. 

 When they are exposed to a strong light, they are con- 

 tinually winking. * In some instances, the sebaceous 



Com- 

 plexion. 



Albinos. 



The eyes of the Albinos are also said to be entirely destitute of the uvea, and to have only the choroid coat very thin, and tinged 

 • t Pa I. e red by d ' seoIoured blood : as il is known that the interior of the eye, when the embryo is about five weeks oiu. is covered 

 with .a blackish mucus, it is highly probable that this never exists, oi is entirely destroyed in the Albinos; and thus the numerous 

 blood vessels wh'ch nearly compose the iris and pupil, appear distinctly and unmixed. 



VOL. VII. PART I. F 



