[ * 7 ® ] 
S I R, 
|N compliance with your defire, I fend as particu- 
-®- lar an account of the extraordinary metamorpho- 
ixs obfervable in colonel Barnes’s negro woman, as I 
have been able to procure. 
Frank, a cook-maid of the above-named Gentle- 
man, a native of Virginia, about 40 years of age, 
remarkably healthy, of a ftrong and robud condi- 
tution, had her fkin originally as dark as that of the 
mod: fwarthy African ; but about fifteen years ago, 
obferved that membrane, in the parts next adjoining 
to the finger nails, to become white. Her mouth 
foon underwent the fame change, and the pheno- 
menon hath fince continued gradually to extend it- 
felf over the whole body ; fo that every part of its 
furface is become more or lefs the fubject of this 
furprifing alteration. In her prefent date four part9 
in five of the fkin are white, fmooth, and tranfpa- 
rent, as in a fair European, elegantly fhewing the. 
ramifications of the fubjacent blood- veffels the 
parts remaining footy daily lofe their blacknefs, and 
in fome meafure partake of the prevailing colour; 
fo that a very few years will, in all probability, in- 
duce a total change. The neck and back, along 
the courfe of the vertebras, maintain their pridine 
hue the mod, and in fome fpots proclaim their ori- 
ginal date : the head, face, and bread, with belljg 
legs, arms, and thighs, are almod wholly white; 
the pudenda and axillae party-coloured ; the fkin of 
thefe parts, as far as white, being covered with white 
hair ; where dark, with black. Her face and bread, 
as often as the pafdons anger, fliame, & c. have been 
excited. 
