28 o 
Human Complexion and its Causes. 
[May 
is humid and the range of the thermometer small. This 
law is plainly stamped on the vegetable world. But when 
we come to the consideration of colour we meet with diffi- 
culties which cannot be overlooked. Let us take, in the 
first place, the moist tropical climates, the regions situate 
on or near the Equator, including, of course, the Valley of 
the Amazon, a certain portion of the African continent, 
Sumatra, Borneo, and New Guinea. Here, according to 
Mr. Buchan, the natives should have a thin cuticle and a 
relatively fair complexion ; yet in this equatorial zone we 
find a very considerable diversity. We have the copper- 
coloured native of South America, and the black negro of 
Congo and the Guinea Coast. Now the aborigines of equa- 
torial Brazil, as we are told by so experienced an observer 
as Mr. Bates, bear their native climate not merely worse 
than the blacker and thicker-skinned negro, but even worse 
than the European ! Again, we should think, on Mr. 
Buchan’s theory, that, e.g., an Englishman, with his thin 
cuticle and light complexion, ought to bear the climate of 
the Gold Coast better than the dry tropical or semi-tropical 
regions of Australia, — which is very far from being the case. 
The author remarks that “there are blacker men in New 
Guinea than in Borneo and Sumatra.*’ Now all these 
islands lie in the humid tropical region. According to Mr. 
A. R. Wallace the climates of Borneo and of New Guinea 
are exceedingly similar, warm, constant, and humid. Why 
then should the natives of New Guinea be blacker than 
those of Borneo ? Why do the latter differ in complexion 
from those of the Gold Coast, or of equatorial Brazil ? 
As regards the moist temperate regions there is one very 
significant fadt mentioned in Mr. Buchan’s favour. The 
north-western coasts of North America, including British 
Columbia and Alaska, approach north-western Europe in 
their meteorological character. The air is humid, the tem- 
perature constant and — for the latitude — high. The annual 
mean heat of Sitka is higher by 2 degrees than that of 
Quebec, which lies more than 10 degrees farther to the 
south. Here, accordingly, the aborigines have complexions 
not very different from those prevalent in Southern Europe. 
Fair hair, ruddy cheeks, and light eyes are not uncommon. 
But if we consider the climates of Tasmania and New 
Zealand, not very unlike those of Western Europe, and 
certainly mild, moist, and fluctuating little, we find a discre- 
pancy which the theory does not explain. According to the 
most trustworthy accounts the aborigines of Tasmania, now 
extindt, were as dark as, if not darker than, those of the 
