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Cloaths; warm Beds; Sitting by Fires i the Cuftom 
of Bathing much in Ufe formerly; a more fiiccu- 
lent and nourifhing Diet ; Excefs in ftrong Liquors ; 
frequent Sipping of warm thin Liquors ; and, in 
general, more luxurious and effeminate Lives ; all 
which, with the Abfence of the Sun, or Defences 
from it, tend to foften, moiften, and relax, the fibres 
of the Body, and to render the Fluids more thin and 
watery; and, confequently, the Membranes com- 
pofed of them, fuch as the Skin is, muft be more 
clear and tranfparent; on which, we have fhewn, its 
YVhitenefs depends ; and, accordingly, we conflantly 
fee, that People of fuch Conftitutions, or Ways of 
Life among us, are always the whiteft. We might, 
indeed, confider the Effeds of Cold upon the Skin 
in thefe northern Climes, where the People are white, 
were it not that thofe, who are the faireft among 
them, are the leaft expofed to it, and feldom or never 
feel its Effeds ; but the Whitenefs of their Com- 
plexions feems rather to be occafioned by muffling 
themfelves up againft the Cold, than from being 
expofed to its Influence : For, as the Cuticula is a 
Sort of Cloathing to the other Membranes of the 
Body, and, by preferving the Whitenefs of them, 
ferves, befldes its numerous other Ufes, to keep up 
an Uniformity and Harmony in the Colours of Peo- 
ple ; fo there is no Doubt, but that the Cloaths 
wherewith we cover it, preferve its Whitenefs, or 
render it whiter, as every Fair-one knows: So that 
the different Cuftoms of different Nations, in this 
xefped, will tend very much, befldes other Caufes, 
to make that Alteration and Diverfity fo obfervable 
in their Complexions. So that it feems to be but a 
fmall Objedion, if any at all, to this Propofltion, 
4 That 
