34 
MEMOIR OF CAMPER. 
not to admire the q;enerous feelings hywhicli he was 
animated, at a time when the tide of prejudice, rest- 
ing on ignorance, and often strengthened by sordid 
interest, and debasing cruelty, set most strongly in 
an opposite direction. “ Thus am I satisfied, says 
he, “with having proved, by anatomical observations 
on our bodies, and particularly on our skin, tliat 
there is no room for believing that the race of Ne- 
groes does not descend from Adam as our own. 
»«».*** Take all these things into your con- 
sideration, and you will find no difficulty in consi- 
dering them as much the genuine descendants of the 
common father of our race as yourselves ; nor will 
YOU hesitate with me to tender to the Negro a bro- 
ther's hand.” This lecture was, at a later date, 
transmitted to the j^cddc^iio dcs Sciences of Pat is, 
and could not fail to produce its effect upon that 
learned body, and on the reading population through- 
out France and the world. 
Very early in his career, Camper, influenced appa- 
rently Iiy his hostility to the degrading views of the 
Negro then so generally entertained, directed a large 
share of his attention to the orang-outang, and to 
the whole race of the monkey tribe. He prosecuted 
his researches wdth uncommon ardoui fiom the year 
1754 down to a late period of his life, dissecting five 
specimens of the orang-outang udth his own hands, 
and particularly examining three others when alive, 
besides examining baboons, apes, &c. in numbers 
that could not easily be reckoned. Ihe result of 
these labours he left in a work extending to about 
