ABSTRACT
The skin takes its colour from a gelatinous substance, placed between the scarf and the proper skin: this substance approaches to jet black in proportion as the place of their nativity lies near the equator. In bad health, it equally, with the northern white, in the same circumstances, changes into a sickly yellow. A gentleman, justly celebrated for his accuracy in the course of his anatomical researches, has discovered a surprizing difference between European and African skulls. Suppose then an African, in his savage state, to have less brains, and in consequence less reason, yet still a sufficiency for his situation; the question then is, whether his head, his brains, and his reason, would not expand in the successive generations of civilized life. The ingenious author of a late History of Jamaica, has treated this subject at considerable length, and appears to have formed, from his own observation, the same opinion as Hume’s, of negroes being a distinct race.
