Chap. Vir. The Formation of Raus. 195 



Daniel], who had long lived on the "West Coast of Africa, told me 

 that he did not believe in any such relation. He was himself 

 unusually fair, and had withstood the climate in a wonderful 

 manner. When he first arrived as a boy on the coast, an old and 

 experienced negro chief predicted from his appearance that this 

 would prove the case. Dr. Nicholson, of Antigua, after having 

 attended to this subject, writes to me that he does not think that 

 dark-coloured Europeans escape the yellow-fever more than 

 those that are light-coloured. Mr. J. M. Harris altogether 

 denies that Europeans with dark hair withstand a hot climate 

 better than other men : on the contrary, experience has taught 

 him in making a selection of men for service on the coast of 

 Africa, to choose those with red hair."" As far, therefore, as 

 these slight indications go, there seems no foundation for the 

 hypothesis, that blackness has resulted from the darker and 

 darker individuals having survived better during long exposure 

 to fever-generating miasma. 



Dr. Sharpe remarks,''^ that a tropical sun, which burns and 

 blisters a white skin, does not injure a black one at all ; and, as 

 he adds, this is not due to habit in the individual, for children 

 only six or eight months old are often carried about naked, and 

 are not affected. I have been assured by a medical man, that 

 some years ago during each summer, but not during the winter, 

 his hands became marked with light brown patches, like. 



" men, of all the mea who suffered *' of generations." 

 " from malarious and yellow fevers, *^ * Anthropological Review,' Jan. 



" or from dysentery, it would soon 1866, p. xxi. Dr. Sharpe also says, 



" be apparent, after some thousand with respect to India (' Man a Spe- 



" cases had been tabulated, whether cial Creation,* 1873, p. 118), that 



" there exists any relation between " it has been noticed by some medi- 



" the colour of the hair and consti- " cal officers that Europeans with 



" tutional liability to tropical dis- " light hair and florid complexions 



*' eases. Perhaps no such relation " suifer less from diseases of tropical 



" would be discovered, but the in- *' countries than persons with dark 



" vestigation is well worth making. *' hair and sallow complexions ; 



" In case any positive result were " and, so far as I know, there ap- 



" obtained, it might be of some " pear to be good grounds for this 



" practical use in selecting men for *' remark." On the other hand, 



" any particular service. Theoreti- Mr. Heddle, of Sierra Leone " who 



" cally the result would be of high " has had more clerks killed under 



" interest, as indicating one means " him than any other man," by the 



" by which a race of men inhabiting climate of the West African Coast 



'* from a remote period an un- (W. Reade, ' African Sketch Book,' 



" healthy tropical climate, might vol. ii. p. 522), holds a directly 



" have become dark-coloured by ojiposite view, as does Capt. Burton. 

 "the better preservation of dark- '^ ' Man a Special Creation,' 187.3, 



" haired or dark-complexioned in- p 119, 

 ' diriduals during % long succession 



