MAN. 
Ihe different species are preserved pure and 
iinmreed. Neither does tlie colour, which 
we describe in general terms as belonging 
to any particular i ace, prevail so universally 
in all the individuals of that.race as to con- 
stitute an invariable character, as we should 
expect if it arose from such an uniform 
cause as an original specific difference : its 
varieties, on the contrary, point out the ac- 
tion of accidental circumstances. Thus, al- 
though the red colour is very general on the 
American continent, travellers have observ- 
ed fair tribes in several parts ; as Bougner 
in Peru, Cook at Nootka Sound, and Weld 
near the United States. The natives of 
New Zealand vary from a deepish black to 
an olive, or yellowish tinge ; in the Friendly 
Islands they are of a complexion deeper 
than the copper brown; but several of both 
sexes are of the olive colour, and some of 
the women are much fiirer. 
Climate has generally been regarded as 
the cause of national colour, and much has 
been ascribed to the light and heat of th.e 
sun. According to the supporters of this 
opinion, every parallel of latitude is marked 
with a characteristic complexion. Under 
the equator we. observe the black colour ; 
under the tropics, the dark brown and 
copper colours; and, from tlie tropic ot 
Cancer northwards, we discern the olive, 
changing through every intermediate shade 
to the fair and sanguine complexion. It is 
further ob, served, that an European, ex- 
posed to the sun and air, will become brown 
in summer, and lose this colour again during 
the winter’s cold; that the Asiatic and 
African women, confined to the walls of 
their seraglios, are as white as Europeans, 
While the colour of those exposed to the 
rays of the sun is dark, like that ot the men; 
that the skin of the Moorish children, which 
is originally fair and delicate, changes in 
the boys, who are exposed to the sun, to a 
swarthy colour, while its fairness is pre- 
served in girls, who keep more within doors : 
that the South of Spain is distinguished by 
cpmjilexion from the north ; and that the 
inhabitants of the extensive empire of China 
exhibit every variety of complexion from 
the fair to the black, according to the lati- 
tude of the country which they inhabit. It 
appears also, that although fair persons have 
their colour considerably deepened by 
changing into a hotter climate, yet that the 
black races are very little affected by com- 
ing into cold countries. We must remem- 
ber too, if Europeans seem to be less affect- 
sd than we should have supposed by chang- 
ing to a hot climate, that by avoiding the 
heat of the sun, by different clothing, diet, 
&c. they may avoid many of the causes 
which act with full energy on the natives of 
such climates. The proximate cause of 
the dark colour of the skin consists, accord- 
ing to Blumenbach, (de Gen. Human. Var. 
Nat.) in the secretion of a greater quantity 
of eprbon, and its fixation, by an union 
wdth oxygen in the rete mucosum. He 
states, that Negroes are not born black, but 
acquire that colour by the access ot the at- 
mosphere. He also insists much on the 
influence which heat exerts on the hepatic 
functions; and the sympathy existing be- 
tween the liver and skin, manifested by the 
dark tinge of the latter in persons of an 
atrabilarious temperament. There is no 
climate so favourable for the operation of 
these causes as that of Africa, which sur- 
passes all others in the continued intensity 
of its heat, in peculiar properties of the at- 
mosphere, arising from very singular winds, 
&C. Accordingly its inhabitants having, 
by exposHi e to these agencies for a long 
serie.s of ages, acquired a strongly-marked 
and deeply rooted character, transmit it 
unimpaired, even in foreign climates, to their 
descendants. 
There are varieties of colour in animals, 
which, whether they ow'e their origin to 
climate or to other causes, are as remark- 
able as those of the different races of man-, 
kind, although they occur in the same 
species. The swine are all white in the 
northern provinces of France; in Dauphiny, 
and some other parts, they are black, as also 
in Spain, Italy, India, China, and America; 
and in Bavaria, reddish brown. The breeds 
of cattle manifest similar variations. We 
have already noticed the clianges of colour 
in animals in cold climates, in speaking of 
the influence of climate. 
Some objections have been made to the 
explanation of colour derived from climate, 
which seem to admit of soluiion. The tem- 
perature of any country cannot be deter- 
mined by considering merely its geographi- 
cal climate, or its distance from tiie equator : 
we must advert at the same time to the 
physical climate, or that which is produced 
in any given latitude by such adventitious 
circumstances as low or elevated position, 
neighbourhood of water, &c. &c. The - 
Abyssiniaus, although iiearly under the equa- 
tor, by no means approach in colour to Ne- 
groes; for their country is very elevated, 
the barometer standing, according to Bruce, 
at twenty-two inches. The inhabitants of 
