30 
MEMOIR OF CAMPER. 
his attention to this department of science, and it 
will he proper here to present our readers with a 
brief analysis of these interesting labours. 
In the course of the year after his settlement in 
Groningen, the Professor delivered a lecture to the 
public, on the colour of the skin of the Negro. His 
introductory remarks shew the enlarged character of 
his views. “ Every science,” he observes, “ of what- 
ever kind it may be, ought to have an object of ge- 
neral interest, as well as one of particular utility. 
Thus anatomy, which comprehends a knowledge of 
the bodily frame, would, in my view, be only a ste- 
rile study, if it were limited to wbat relates to me- 
dicine and surgery, without embracing other sciences 
also. It should never be forgotten, that it forms 
tlie most beautiful and the most important branch 
of natural history, and is that study which, of all 
others, most impresses us with sentiments of admira- 
tion and gratitude to the great First Cause.” He 
seems to have been directed to the immediate sub- 
ject of this public lecture, not merely by its in- 
trinsic interest, but because it was a fashion with 
many about the middle of the last century, some of 
whom bore the name even of philosophers, to depre- 
ciate the character of the Negroes, and to question 
whether they were derived from the same parent 
stock. “ The difference of the colour of the skin,” 
he observes, “ gives, at first sight, so marked a cha- 
racter, that some writers have tliought that the Ne- 
groes constitute a peculiar race, which has some 
