1813.] 



Royal Society, 



383 



Dr. Wells found this the case with the black cuticle of Harriet 

 West. ^From, this curious case, Dr. Wells draws the following 

 inferences: — 1. The black colour of negroes does not prove 

 them to be a distinct race of animals from the whites. 2. The 

 black colour cannot be ascribed to the action of the sun merely, 

 as is the common opinion. An additional proof of the fallacy 

 of such an opinion is^ that those pans of negroes which are 

 exposed to the sun are not so black as those that are covered with 

 clothes. 



On Thursday the 8th of March Dr. Wel!s's paper was con- 

 chaded. He gave his opinion about what occasioned the differ- 

 ence between negroes and whites. It is well known that whites 

 are not so well able to bear a warm climate as negroes; and that 

 they are liable to many diseases in such a situation^ from which 

 negroes are free. On the other hand, whites are much better 

 fitted to bear a cold climate than negroes. Suppose a colony of 

 whites transported to the torrid zone, and obliged to subsist by 

 their labour, it is obvious that a great proportion of them woulc} 

 speedily be destroyed by the climate, and the colony, in no long 

 period of time, annihilated. The same thing would happen to 

 a colony of negroes transported to a cold climate. Dr. Wells 

 conceives that the black colour of negroes is not the cause of 

 their being better able to bear a warm climate, but merely the 

 sign of some difference in constitution, which makes them able 

 to bear such a climate. Suppose a colony of white men carried 

 to the torrid zone 3 some would be better able to resist the cli- 

 mate than others. Such famihes would thrive, while the others 

 decayed. These families would exhibit the sign of such a con- 

 stitution ; that is, they would be dark : and as the darker they 

 were, the better they would be able to resist the climate ; it is 

 obvious that the darker varieties would be the most thriving, and 

 that the colony, on that account, would become gradually 

 darker and darker coloured till they degenerated into negroes. 

 The contrary would happen to negroes transported to cold 

 climates. 



Dr. Wells conceives that the woolly hair,- and deformed 

 features, of the negroes, are connected with want of intellect. 

 The negroes have been always slaves; and there is no instance 

 of their better shaped neighbours being subject to the negroes. 



The same evening a paper by 1. Berzelius and Dr. Marcet, on 

 the alcohol of sulphur, was begun. This substance was disco- 

 vered several years ago by Lampadius, while distilling a mixture 

 of charcoal and pyrites. He called it alcohol of sulphur from 

 its great volatihty. He conceived it to be a compound of sulphur 

 and hydrogen. Clement and Desormes obtained it soon after by 

 passing sulphur through red-hot charcoal; and from their 

 analysis it appeared to be a compound of sulphur and charcoal,. 



