Page:An essay on the origin and relative status of the white and colored races of mankind.djvu/20

 moreover, to change his hair to wool, &c.? And whether it would not follow as a natural consequence, that, if climate controls the complexion, then everybody, living in the same climate, would, necessarily, be of the same complexion. I will now give the true cause of the white and black and intermediate complexions, based upon scientific investigation. There is a stratum of mucous matter, underneath, what is called, the scarf skin, called by anatomists—"rete mucosum," in which there is a pigmentary deposit, which gives to the skin its complexion; and which, in the Caucasian, is white; yellow, in the Mongolian; red or copper colored, in the Indian; brown, in the Malayan; and black in the Etheopian, or black man, and which can be seen, by simply raising a blister on the skin. Thus the black man inherently carries with him, the natural elements of his own dark complexion; and his black and thick skin; his matted wool; his thick skull, and his strong odor, to repel the baneful effects of the sickening malaria of a hot climate were evidently intended to adapt him to it, and thus, also, the other colored races inherently carry with them the elements of their own native complexions. In accounting for the darkening process, it is said that children of the black race are born nearly white, and that from the comparative smallness of their lungs, as compared with those of white children, they inhale a larger portion of carbon than of oxigen, and, that the excess of carbon, operating upon the pigmentary deposit, underlying the scarf skin, changes its color; and, consequently, the skin, in a few days, begins to darken, and continues to darken, until it attains its ultimate blackness. The fatal effect of crossing the white and black races, proves the correctness of the theory of their separate natures and creation. For it is a well authenticated fact, that