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 COMPLEXION 193 of a dark brown hue. The Indians in the tor- rid zone, who inhabit the most elevated plains of the Cordilleras of the Andes, and those who are under lat. 45 S., have as coppery a com- plexion as those who under a burning climate cultivate bananas in the narrowest and deepest valleys of the equinoctial region." " Do we not in fact behold," says Virey, "the tawny Hungarian dwelling for ages under the same par- allel and in the same country with the whitest nations of Europe, and the red Peruvian, the brown Malay, the nearly white Abyssinian, in the very zones which the blackest people in the universe inhabit ? The natives of Van Diemen's Land are black, while Europeans of the corre- sponding northern latitudes are white ; and the Malabars, in the most burning climate, are no browner than the Siberians." The tempera- ture of a place, however, depends not only on its latitude, but on its elevation and its meteoro- logical conditions. For these reasons the lines of equal temperature do not always agree with the same degrees of latitude, nor are they measured by the widest range in the ther- mometer. Now, although the elevation of tem- perature in Africa may not at any one time be greater than is sometimes observed in Ameri- ca, yet there can be no doubt that the annual amount of heat far exceeds that found in the tropical latitudes of the western continent. In measuring the effect of any particular climate upon complexion, therefore, it is necessary not only to determine its absolute degree of lati- tude, but also to ascertain what other causes are in operation tending to bestow a deeper or lighter shad'e upon the human countenance. It is a well known fact that the luxuriance of vegetation is not so much dependent on the intensity as on the mean quantity of heat ; and the same law which operates in effecting a distribution of plants over the surface of the globe, independent of well defined lines of lati- tude, likewise exercises its influence in deter- mining the intensity of shade observable among the different races of mankind. Those nations most exposed to the weather and furthest re- moved from civilization are, as a general rule, the darkest. Thus the South sea islanders, who seem to be of one family, vary in complex- ion according to the degree of their civilization. The Australians, who are savages, are black ; The New Zealanders, half civilized, are tawny ; the Friendly islanders are frequently of an olive color ; while the people of Tahiti and the So- ciety islands, who are the furthest advanced in civilization, are often possessed of a light complexion and flowing ringlets, and sometimes are considered really beautiful. The same fact is observable among persons of different degrees of cultivation in countries having complete and absolute divisions of rank. Thus not only are the nobility of France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and England easily distinguished from the peas- antry, but the intermediate classes are as read- ily determined. An interesting fact connected with this subject is, that the children of those most exposed to the influence of the sun among the white races, and even the offspring of many who possess a tawny color, are as fair at birth as those of the most delicately complexioned parentage. The children of the Moors are born white, and acquire the complexion of their parents in after years. Russell says that the inhabitants of the country in the vicinage of Aleppo are naturally of a fair complexion ; and among the women in the upper ranks of life this fair skin is preserved through life, while the inhabitants of that country are gen- erally tinged with a shade which, although lighter than the negro, is deeper than that of the Telingan. The division of mankind by Blumenbach into the five varieties of Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, American, and Malay, is, among other characteristics, largely founded on difference in complexion. The Caucasian is for the most part characterized by a white skin and red cheeks ; the hair of a nut-brown, running on the one hand into yellow, and on the other into black, soft, long, and undulating. The Mongolian has a skin of an olive color, and black, stiff, straight, and sparing hair. The Ethiopian has a black skin, and black curly hair. The American possesses a skin of a copper color, with black, stiff, straight hair. The Malay has a tawny skin, and black, soft, curled hair. (See ETHNOLOGY.) Dr. Picker- ing, who has made very extensive observa- tions upon different races, adopts a new classi- fication. "I have seen in all," he remarks, " eleven races of men, and though I am hardly prepared to fix a positive limit to their number, I confess, after having visited so many differ- ent parts of the globe, that I am at a loss where to look for others. They may be enumerated conveniently enough in the order of complex- ion, beginning with the lightest, a. White : 1, Arabian; 2, Abyssinian. 5. Brown: 3, Mon- golian; 4, Hottentot; 5, Malay, c. Blackish brown : 6, Papuan ; 7, Negrillo ; 8, Indian, or Telingan; 9, Ethiopian, d. Black: 10, Aus- tralian; 11, Negro." This classification of Dr. Pickering is here introduced to show the im- portance of complexion as a characteristic of the different varieties of the human race. It will be observed that the color of the hair appears to be in a great degree connected with that of the skin ; and it may be added that the color of the eyes likewise bears the same rela- tion. Light hair is the usual accompaniment of a white and thin skin, while dark hair and a dark complexion are usually associated to- gether. Among all races there is a class termed albinos, whose bodies appear to be destitute of coloring matter, and who, besides a creamy- white skin, have white hair and pale, rose- colored eyes, owing to the absence of the pig- mentum nigrum from the sclerotic coat of the eye. This renders them unusually sensitive to light. Werfer, in his description of those he saw among the inhabitants of the isthmus of Darien, says: "They see not well in the sun, poring in the clearest day, their eyes being