C O N C E 
■nod health, or for the removal of difeafe, but in a greater 
or lefs degree involve the machinery of the whole fyllern. 
A (ingle mouthful of food,while it is prepared, purified, and 
Applied to its ultimatepurpofes, isfubjed!edtothead!ion of 
all the known parts of the body, and without doubt to 
all thofe parts the properties of which we are unacquaint¬ 
ed with ; a draught of cold water fpreads its influence al- 
moft inliaritaneoufly from one extremity to the other; 
flic flighted wound difturbs even the remote!! parts, and 
is' followed not unfrequently with unhappy etfedls; an 
alniod inviflbl: quantity of poifon fets the whole frame in 
torture, and all the adfive powers of the body inftinc- 
fively exert tjiemlelves to folicit its expullion : can we 
diilinguifh thefe things, arid admire them, and then fup- 
pofe that the mod material operation of the human body; 
the renovation of itfelf, is to be accomplished in a cor¬ 
ner, and with infinitely lefs' formality and fblemnity than 
a fpittle is cad upon the wind ? The evident means are 
f ufticiently degraded ; vve need not exert our ingenuity 
to degrade them farther. 
It is during this interval, between productive coition 
and theexclufion of the ovum from the ovaria, that like- 
riels, hereditary difeafes, arid the like, are communicated 
and acquired. Inftead of that influence which the ima¬ 
gination of the mother is fuppofed to poflefs over the 
form of the child, might we not lufpefl, that the leminal 
fluid of the male, co-operating, during this interval, with 
that of the female upon the ovum, inftigated a likenefs, 
according to the prevalence of either influence in the 
united principles? It is during this period only that the 
difeafes of the male can be communicated to the child; 
and, if we admit riot of this interval and general opera¬ 
tion of the feminal fluid, we cannot fee how they can be 
communicated, though thofe of the mother may be com¬ 
municated then or at a much later period, conlidering 
how the child is nouriflied while it is in the uterus, and at 
the bread. It may be urged againft this early and effec¬ 
tual acquifition of likenefs, that the foetus does not ac¬ 
quire even the divifion of its larged members till long 
after its exdufion from the ovaria: but before any ftrels 
is laid on this remark, let it be remembered, that at 
whatever time the features acquire their determination, 
their evolution arid difcrimination are feldom compleated 
before puberty, and that they are frequently changed by 
difeafe, even after they have been difcriminated. If 
likenefs depends upon the imagination of the female, 
how happens it that the children of thofe vvhofe profli¬ 
gate manners render the father uncertain, and whofe af- 
fedions ceafe with the iriftant of libidinous gratification, 
are as frequently diftinguifhable by their likenefs, as 
thofe children who have.'been born under none of tliofd 
diladvantages ? If the features are not planted during 
this period, and if imagination be not idle or ufelefs, how 
Was the fix-fingered family, mentioned by Maupertuis, 
continued? When a female of that family married a 
man who had only the ufual number of fingers, the de¬ 
formity of her family became uncertain, or ceafed ; and 
we mud fuppofe her imagination could not have been in- 
ad!ive or diminifhed, whether alarmed by the fear of con¬ 
tinuing a deformed race, or indigated by the vanity of 
tranfmittiilg ib remarkable a peculiarity. Was imagi¬ 
nation, in a pregnant woman, fo powerful as many have 
endeavoured to reprefent it, the mother, profligate at 
heart, though not actually wicked, would always betray 
the apoftacy of heraffedfions; and even a virtuous wo¬ 
man might divulge that (he had looked with as much ea- 
gernefs at a haiialome dranger, as (lie had looked at the 
aquiline no(e, or other prominent feature, of her hufband. 
But admitting that the feminal fluid of every- male pof- 
fe lie s' feme kind ot influence peculiar to that male, and 
connected with his form, as well as his conditution ; in 
the fame, or in lome (imilar manner, it contains, notwith- 
ftanding the elaborattnels of its preparation, the damina 
of difeafes, fome or which often lie longer dormant than 
even the features of individuals; that the ova are as pe- 
P T I O N. it 
culiarly condrudfed by the conditution cf the female, as 
any other parts which depend upon gradual and folitary 
evolution; and that thefe, operating upon each other by 
the intervention of the general fydern of the female, 
may; according to the power or prevalence of either, af- 
fed! the features and figure of the incipient animal, or 
rather the inorganized mafs from which the features and 
figure of the animal are afterwards to be evolved : ad¬ 
mitting all thefe things, will national or even more exten • 
five fimilitude corroborate the opinion ? 
The prefervation and continuation of likenefs appears to 
proceed from that parent, who, in the ad! of procreation, 
lias difeovered mod lfrength and \ igour ; and this is com¬ 
monly the father. A young negro woman in Virginia, 
after having brought forth for the fird time a black child, 
was delivered a (econd time of twins; one of them, a 
boy, was black, and the other, who was a girl, was a mu¬ 
latto. As the boy grew up, lie retained his fhort hair, 
which was naturally frizzled, and had a refemblance to 
wool ; other marks plainly (hewed that he was a true ne¬ 
gro, and in every refped! like the black father who had 
begotten him. The girl, on the other hand, was tolera 
bly white ; flie had blue eyes, long black hair, without 
any natural curl; in fliort, the had a great refemblance to 
the overfeer of the plantation, whom the negro hufband 
fufpe'dted of cohabiting with his wife. Becoming preg¬ 
nant a third time, die was delivered of three children, 
two of them mulattoes, and the other a perfect negro. 
Shall we aferibe this to the eded! of imagination ? Sucii 
an explanation is rejfefted by the philofopher as abfiurd, 
and contrary to every layv cf nature. We can account 
for the third delivery, therefore, only by admitting the 
cohabitation of two fathers of different races, and then a 
fupei fetation. 
While men continue in the fame climate, and even irt 
the fame didridt, an uniform peculiarity of features and 
figure prevails among them, little aftedfed by all thofe 
changes which improve or degrade the mind ; but wheii 
they migrate, or when they are corrupted by the migra¬ 
tion of others, this national diflindlion in time is loft, 
though in the latter cafe it feems to be recoverable, unlefs 
the caufe of change be continued.- The beautiful form 
and features of the ancient Greeks are at this day dii- 
cernible in their defeendants, though they are debated by 
intercourfe with drangers, and by forms of government 
ultimately aftedting their conditutions; the defeendants 
of the few, who by chance or defign have been obliged to 
fettle among the ugly tribes in the extremity of the 
north, have, by their intercourfe with thefe tribes, and by 
neceflarily accommodating theinfelves to the farce inodes 
of life, befides other circumdances, become almofc 
equally ugly; and the Jew himfelf, though he abhors to 
mingle with a different nation, amt though his mode of 
life is nearly the fame in all climates, yet the fettlement 
of his ancedors in any other particular climate for fohie 
centuries will very fenlibly impair the characteridic fea¬ 
tures of his people. As equally in point, and lefs liable 
to queltion, we may mention the following (Imilar obfer- 
vations. A Scotchman, an Englifliman, a Frenchman, 
or a Dutchman, may, even without their peculiarities of 
drefs, be almod always diltinguiflied in their very pidl ures § 
the durdy and generous Briton, notwithstanding the (hort- 
nefs of the period, arid the uninterrupted intercourfe, is 
traced with uncertainty in the effeminate and cruel Vir¬ 
ginian; and the negroes in North America, whofe fami¬ 
lies have continued fince the fird importation of thefe 
unhappy creatures, and whofe modes of living, exclufive 
of their fl’averv, are not materially changed, are much 
lefs remarkable for the flat note, big lips, ugly legs, arid 
long heels, than their ancedors were, or than thofe who. 
are diredtly imported from the fame original nation. 
From thefe oblervations it feems allowable to infer, that 
though climate, manners, occupation, or imitation, can¬ 
not materially affed! the form or features of the exidihg 
animal ; yet thele circumdances, becoming the lot of a’ 
4- feries 
