COMPLEXION. 



46 



Cam- all the varieties we have enumerated have been form- 



plenon. e &. This opinion has numerous and able supporters ; 



*~*Y~'—' among whom Buffon, Blumenbach, Zimmerman, Win- 



terbottom, Mitchell, and particularly Smith, may be 



mentioned. * 



A contrary opinion is held by Boyle, Karnes, Pritch- 

 ard, and a few other writers, t They do not deny the 

 influence of climate on the human complexion; but they 

 contend, that if the varieties of the human race are ac- 

 curately examined and compared with the climate in 

 which they respectively live, the opinion which they 

 controvert, will be found directly opposed by a num- 

 ber of well-established and decisive facts. They also 

 maintain, that the operation of climate on the human 

 complexion differs in some very marked and important 

 points, from what are known to exist in the complex- 

 ions of the great varieties of mankind. As the opinion 

 of these writers is liable to be misrepresented, it may 

 be proper to add, that they even admit that climate 

 may and does influence the complexion of all the races 

 which are placed under the different varieties ,• so that 

 the Malay, the Mongolian, and the Ethiopian variety, 

 may be more or less black ; but, at the same time, they 

 contend, that though climate will account for shades of 

 difference in the complexion of these races, it will not 

 account for the radical and distinctive complexion it- 

 self. 



The opinion that climate alone will account for the 

 various complexions of mankind, is very plausible, and 

 supported by the well-known facts, that in Em-ope the 

 complexion grows darker as the climate becomes warm- 

 er ; that the complexion of the French is darker than 

 that of the Germans, while the natives of the south of 

 France and Germany are darker than those of the north; 

 that the Italians and Spaniards are darker than the 

 French, and the natives of the south of Italy and Spain 

 darker than those in the north. The complexion also 

 of the people of Africa and the East Indies is brought 

 forward in support of this opinion ; and from these, 

 and similar facts, the broad and general conclusion is 

 drawn, that the complexion varies in darkness as the 

 heat of the climate increases ; and that, therefore, cli- 

 mate alone has produced this variety. 



But if it can be shewn that the exceptions to this ge- 

 neral rule are very numerous ; that people of dark com- 

 plexions are found in the coldest climates ; people of 

 fair complexions in warm climates ; people of the same 

 complexion throughout a great diversity of climate ; 

 and races differing materially in complexion among the 

 same people, this opinion must fall to the ground. 



1. In the coldest climates of Europe, Asia, and Ame- 

 rica, we find races of a very dark complexion. The 

 Laplanders have short, black, coarse hah - ; their skins 

 are swarthy, and the irides of their eyes are black. 

 According to Crantz, the Greenlanders have small black 

 eyes; their body is dark grey all over ; their face brown, 

 or olive; and their hair coal-black. (Crantz's Hist, of 

 Greenland, i. 132.) The complexion of the Samoieds 

 and the other tribes who inhabit the north of Asia, and 

 of the Esquimaux, is very similar to that of the Lap- 

 landers and Greenlanders. Thus we perceive that a 

 dark complexion, which, according to the advocates for 

 the opinion which we are considering, is the result of a 

 warm climate, is found among those people who live in 



Com- 

 plexion. 



Indians, 



the coldest parts of the habitable world. This fact is 

 so glaringly and decisively against their hypothesis, 

 that to account for it, they are obliged to call in the w ~V 

 operation of other causes, and to contend that extreme 

 cold, especially when connected with poverty and filth, 

 will produce the same complexion as extreme heat; 

 but besides the objection to this modification of their 

 original hypothesis, that it is evidently had recourse 

 to, in order to obviate a pressing difficulty, and is not 

 borne out by a sufficient number of facts, there is ano- 

 ther objection still more fatal and unanswerable. If we 

 examine the inhabitants in the north of Europe, we find 

 the Norwegians fair complexioned, blue eyed, and with Norw*. 

 flaxen hair ; we pass on to the northern extremity of mans. 

 Norway, and without experiencing any sensible change 

 in the coldness of the climate, we suddenly and abrupt- 

 ly meet with the swarthy skins, and the black hair and 

 eyes of the Laplander. The operation of extreme cold, 

 therefore, to produce this darkness of complexion, can- 

 not be allowed ; and the unaided operation of the other 

 two alleged causes, poverty and filth, will hardly be 

 deemed sufficient to produce such essential and per- 

 manent characteristics of complexion. 



Zimmerman has justly remarked, that, in consider- 

 ing the question of the cause of the different varieties 

 in the human complexion, we should pay no attention 

 to mere geographical latitude; since climate depends 

 upon so many other circumstances, besides the distance 

 of the country from the equator. This observation 

 ought to be kept in mind in considering the following 

 facts, winch still farther prove, that in a comparative- 

 ly cold climate dark complexioned people are found. 

 In the narrative of a route from Chunargur to Raga- 

 mundry, in the Ellore Sircar, by Mr Blunt, he met 

 with several tribes of mountaineers, whom he describes 

 as having dark skins, lips thick and prominent, with 

 high cheek bones. Although the country which they 

 inhabited is in the latitude of 23° 28' N. yet the cli- 

 mate must be very cold, from the following circum- 

 stances: At Shawpoor, on the 11th of February, the 

 frost was very severe, and the trees had lost all their 

 foliage. Mr Blunt informs us, that he ascended more 

 than 300 yards, in perpendicular height, after he left 

 Shawpoor, before he arrived at the mountaineers whom 

 he describes ; and when he requested of them informa- 

 tion respecting the climate of then- country, they told 

 him, that they never experienced any hot wind ; on 

 the contrary, the frequent rains throughout the year 

 rendered the air so cool, that during the night a co- 

 vering was necessary, (Asiatic Annual Register for 

 1800, Miscellaneous Tracts, pp. 136, 148, &c.) Thus 

 we perceive, that, in a comparatively cold climate, the 

 complexion and features of the inhabitants greatly re- 

 sembled those of the warmer countries of this part of 

 Asia. 



Humboldt's observations on the South American In- South 

 dians, illustrate and confirm the same fact. If climate -America* 

 rendered the complexion of such of these Indians as Ind!an3, 

 live under the torrid zone, in the warm and sheltered 

 vallies, of a dark hue, it ought also to render, or pre- 

 serve fair, the complexion of such as inhabit the moun- 

 tainous part of that country ; for certainly, in point of 

 climate, there must be as much difference between the 

 heat of the valleys and of the mountains in South Ame- 



" Buffon's Nat. Hist translated by Smellie, vol. iii. pp. 57 — 207; Blumenbach de Gener. Human Variet ; Zimmerman's Geo- 

 graphical History of Man ; Winterbottom's Sierra Leone, vol. i. p. 188, &c ; Mitchell's Paper in the Phil. Trans, already referred 

 to; Smith's Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Cmplexion and Figure in the Human Species. 



•J- Boyle, in his Experiments already quoted ; Same's Sketches, book i. sket. 1 ; Pritchard Disputatio inauguralis de Horn. Varie- 

 tatibus. 



