An essay on the causes of the variety of complexion and figure in the human species : To which are added, Strictures on Lord Kaim's discourse on the original diversity of mankind / by Samuel Stanhope Smith.

Samuel Stanhope Smith

Date:: 1789

Credit: An essay on the causes of the variety of complexion and figure in the human species : To which are added, Strictures on Lord Kaim's discourse on the original diversity of mankind / by Samuel Stanhope Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$avidendl difcernible through the fin ®, If thefe men had been found in.a diftant region where no memory of their origin remained, the philofophers who efpoufe the hypothefis of different {pecies of men would have pro- duced them in proof, as they have often done nations) diftinguifhed by fmaller differences than diftinguith thefe from their European anceifors-}.: Examples taken: from the natives diss | of _* The-dark. colour of the natives of the Weft-India Iflands: . is well: known, to approach very near a-dark copper. The de-) fcendants of the Spaniards in South America are already be- come: copper-coloured! [See Phil. 'Tranf. of Roy, Soc. Lond. No. 4765, fect. 4.].. The Portuguefe of Mitomba, ‘in Sierra. Leona, on the coaft of Africa, have, by intermarrying with’ the: natives, and ‘by adopting their manners, become, in a: few generations, perfectly aflimilated in afpeéts figure, and complexion [See Treatifé on the Trade of Great Britain to Africa, by;an;Affican,merchant.]. And ‘Lord Kaims, who, cannot be fufpected of partiality.on this fubject, fays of another Portuguefe fettiement‘on the coaft’ ofi Congo, that the defcend- ante of! thofe polifhed Europeans-have Win both in their -perfons and their. manners, more like beaits than like men [-See-Sketches-of Man, prel. dife.]: Thefe examples tend to’ itrengthen. the! inference drawn from the, changes that have’ happened inthe Anglo-Americans. And they shew how ealily climate would’ affimilate foreigners to natives in the courfe:of’ time, if they would adopt. the fame manners, and equally. expofe themfelves to its influence. ¢: The:habit-of/America is,-in general, more fle: nder thaa that of Britain. But the extremely meagre afpect of the pooreit’ and ‘loweft clafs of people in fome of the fouthern ftates may arife - from: the’ féilowing ‘caufé, that the ‘changes produced ' by-climate-are, in the firit inftance, generally-difeafes. Here- after, when the conftitution fhall’be perfeétly accommodated * to the climate, it will’ by degrees affime:a more’ regular and* agreeable figure: ‘Fhe Anglo-Americans, however, will: never-‘refemble the native Indians. Civilization will prevent’ fo greata scsi amine either in the colour or the features. ie i$