MEMOIR OF CAMPER. 
83 
inorphosis, which would not be very agreeable to the 
prejudices of many amongst us : it is that of the white 
becoming piebald with black, as deep as ebony. He 
had seen only one ease of this himself, but he refers 
to other instances which had occurred uu ler the 
observation of others. 
As to the efficient cause of the blackness of the 
Negro, our author agrees with Aristotle and Galen 
oinong the ancients, deservedly liigh authorities, .and 
Buffon and many others among the moderns, in 
thinking, that it is owing to the great heat of the 
climate which he iidiabits ; and, in still more general 
terms, he states, that it would appear that the tem- 
perature of the climate w'hicli men inhabit is the 
cause of the tint of the colour which their skin as- 
siimes ; and that, after a long sojourn under the 
scorching sun, a wdute race of men would become 
hlack, and, in opposite circumstances, a black race 
Would become white. This is a very simple and 
natural, and, it must be allowed, plausible supposition. 
^ e cannot, however, now enter upon ibis interesting 
'‘"d disputed subject ; only we think it right, in a 
*<ingle word, to warn our readers, that the point is 
by no means considered as settled, even at the pre- 
sent day, and that the mass of evidence, as well as 
of authority, tends to throw considerable doubt on 
the doctrine of the cause of colour as maintained by 
Camper. 
Whether our author was right or wrong in his 
speculations on this particular point, it is impossible 
VOL. Ill (, 
