42 



COMPLEXION. 



plexion. 

 Albinos. 



Ghange of 

 complex- 

 ion by in- 

 termar- 

 riage. 



glands are very large and numerous. Winterbottom 

 says, that the singularities which distinguish this va- 

 riety of the human species, exist previously to birth : 

 they never change afterwards, and are in some cases 

 hereditary, t At Wankapong, this writer saw a young 

 man, about 1 8 years old, whose father had been a white 

 negro ; his mother, three brothers, and two of his sis- 

 ters, were black, but one sister was white like himself. 

 None of these people whom Winterbottom saw, seem- 

 ed to labour under any imbecility of intellect ; but 

 their corporeal strength, and their power of enduring 

 fatigue, was inferior to that of other negroes. The 

 same observation is made by Dampier, in his account 

 of the Albinos of the isthmus of Darien, who, from 

 his description, resemble those of Africa very much in 

 the colour of their skin, hair, and eyes. 



It was for a long time supposed that Albinos were 

 confined to the East Indies, Africa, and America ; and 

 from their being found there, nearly under the same 

 latitude, BufFon adopted the opinion, that " white was 

 the primitive colour of nature, which, in certain cir- 

 cumstances, after having been varied by climate, by 

 food, and by manners, to yellow, brown, and black, 

 returns, but so greatly altered, that it has little or no 

 resemblance to the original whiteness." This opinion, 

 however, is not well-founded. Albinos, with exactly 

 the negro cast of countenance, and the peculiar ap- 

 pearance of the eye, have been found in various parts 

 of Europe ; though the singularity is not nearly so 

 striking in a white as in a black person. Professor 

 Blumenbach says, that he has seen sixteen individuals 

 resembling Leucaethiopians, born in various parts of 

 Germany ; and M. Buzzi, ( Opusculi Scelti de Milan, 

 1784), mentions a woman in that city who was the 

 mother of seven sons, three of whom were Albinos. 

 In 1 803, a man died in Herefordshire, who was a com- 

 plete Albino : he was rather below the middle stature ; 

 his hair was white and soft, and his eyes red. He was 

 one of six children, all the rest of whom were quite 

 exempt from this singularity. 



A middle complexion is produced where children are 

 born from parents of different races. If the offspring 

 of the darkest African and the fairest European inter- 

 marry successively with Europeans, in the fourth ge- 

 neration they become white ; when the circumstances 

 are reversed, the result is reversed also. Along with 

 the successive changes of complexion, is also produced 

 a change in the nature and colour of the hair ; though, 

 in some instances, the woolly hair remains when the 

 complexion has become nearly as fair as that of brown 

 people in Europe. With regard to the offspring of Eu- 

 ropeans and American Indians, the hair, according to 

 Humboldt, does not indicate a mixture of the Indian 

 blood, so clearly and certainly as the thinness of the 

 beard, the smallness of the hands and feet, and a cer- 

 tain obliquity of the eyes. This offspring, to which 

 the name of Mestizo is given, are distinguished by a 

 colour almost pure white, and a skin of a particular 

 transparency. Ulloa describes, in a more minute and 

 exact manner, the signs which indicate the Mestizos. 

 The most remarkable, according to him, is the lowness 

 of the forehead, which often leaves but a small space 

 between their hair and eyebrows ; while, at the same 



Cqai. 

 plexion. 



time, the hair grows remarkably forward on their tem- 

 ples, extending to the lower part of the ear. Besides, 

 he adds, the hair itself is harsh, lank, coarse, and very — "Y""* ' 

 black ; their nose very small, thin, with a little rising 

 on the middle, from whence it forms a small curve, 

 terminating in a point, bending towards the upper lip. 

 These marks, besides some dark spots on the body, are 

 so constant and invariable, as to make it very difficult 

 to conceal the fallacy of their complexion ; when, as it 

 sometimes happens, it is so fine that they might other- 

 wise pass for whites. ( Ulloa, vol. i. p. 276.) 



It does not, however, always happen that the off- 

 spring is the intermediate colour between that of the 

 respective races to which the father and mother belong; 

 it sometimes resembles one parent only ; while, per- 

 haps, in the second or third generation, the colour of 

 the other parent makes its appearance. 



White, On the regular Gradation of Man, mentions 

 a negress who had twins by an Englishman ; one was 

 perfectly black, its hair was short, woolly, and curled; 

 the other was white, with hair resembling that of an 

 European : and Parsons, in the Philosophical Transac- 

 tions, gives an account of a black man who mar- 

 ried an Englishwoman ; the child, the offspring of this 

 marriage, was quite black. The same author gives 

 another instance, still more remarkable : A black in 

 Gray's Inn married a white woman, who bore him a 

 daughter, resembling the mother in features, and as 

 fair in all respects, except that the right buttock and 

 thigh were as black as the fathers. (Philosoph. Trans. 

 vol. i. p. 45.) 



IV. The generally received opinion concerning the - ., • 

 varieties of complexion which are found in the different fl ueilce f 

 races of man throughout the globe, is, that they are ,-iimate in 

 caused entirely by the influence of climate. Respecting producing 

 the primary colour of man, the supporters of this opi- the var,e - 

 nion are not agreed. BufFon, as we have already no- u . es ° com " 

 ticed, thought that the primary colour was white, 

 which, by difference of climate, food, and manners, 

 was changed into yellow, brown, and black, and which 

 manifested a strong tendency to return, notwithstand- 

 ing the influence of these circumstances, in the Albinos. 

 Mitchell, on the other hand, maintains, that the pri- 

 mitive colour of man was a medium between black and 

 white, " from which primitive colour the Europeans 

 degenerated as much on the one hand as the Africans 

 did on the other ; the Asiatics (unless, perhaps, where 

 mixed with the whiter Europeans), with most of the 

 Americans, retaining the primitive and original com- 

 plexion." Philosoph. Trans, abridged by Martyn, vol. x. 

 p. 948. 



But whatever sentiments the advocates for the influ- 

 ence of climate on the colour of man entertain respect- 

 ing the original complexion of the human race, they 

 are all agreed concerning the nature and process of that 

 influence. They contend, that climate having altered, 

 in a slight degree, the complexion of the primitive in- 

 habitants of the earth, their offspring, still exposed to 

 the influence of the same cause, and being born of the 

 acquired colour of their parents, produced a generation 

 still varying in a greater degree from the primitive com- 

 plexion; thus assuming, that the complexion caused by 

 climate is transmitted to the offspring, by which means 



-|- The hereditary tendency to this singularity of complexion, like other hereditary tendencies, sometimes remains evident for one 

 •r more generation*. Parsons, in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. iv. p. 45, &c. mentions the case of a Negro woman, mar- 

 ried to a man of her own colour, who brought forth a white child : afraid of the anger or jealousy of her husband, she wished to have 

 concealed it from him, but he was neither angry nor surprised : he said that white children had often be«n born in his family ; his 

 father was of that complexion, while his grandfather and grandmother were blacks. 



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