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race are , as might be expected , altogether at variance , and strikingly contrast the spirit of the two writers . On . the physiology of the question , we are not competent to decide ; we therefore give their opinions without further comment . * There cannot be a doubt , ' says Voltaire , that the negroes form a perfectly distinct race ; ' and in proof of this assertion , he appeals to the reticulum mucosum of a negro , dissected by Ruysch , which he had himself examined at Leyden , and which was black . The blackness of this membrane , imparting its permanent colour to the skin , and only in certain diseases giving way , and allowing the whiteness of the fat to become visible , appears to him a manifest proof that the negroes form a race specifically distinct from other men * . What , on the other hand , is the doctrine of Herder ? He agrees with Voltaire in ascribing the blackness of negroes to the
reticulum , which lies under the epidermis , and which is common to all mankind ; but this reticulum , he further observes from Camper , is , under many circumstances , at least in some parts of the body , more or less tinged with colour ; so that all men have the necessary elements in their constitution for becoming negroes . The colouring matter in negroes , according to him , is a kind of oil , which is
secreted by the influence of the sun ' s heat under the reticulum , and which gives it its black glossy hue . Herder , therefore , finds in this theory a confirmation of his own views concerning the action of climate on the human constitution ,- —that is , climate taken in its widest sense , and comprehending the auxiliary and concurring influences of the habitual modes of life and kinds of nourishment . ' Let us now consider , ' he says , ' that these blacks have lived for thousands of years in their quarter of the globe , and have even , by their modes of life , become quite incorporated with it—let us further reflect , that many
circumstances , which now exert a feebler influence , in earlier times , when all the elements were as yet in their first rude strength , must have operated far more powerfully , and that , in the lapse of thousands of years , the entire wheel , as it were , of accident completes its revolution , and developes , at one time or another , every thing that can be developed on earth , —and we shall cease to be surprised that the skin of some nations should be dark . Nature , in the course of her ceaseless and secret workings , has
accomplished other and far greater variations than this * t * . Admitting that in negroes the higher intellectual powers are not developed , and that nature has compensated them for this deficiency by a greater relish and capacity of sensual pleasures , Herder benevolently adds—* let us then , if we will , compassionate the negro for being deprived by his climate of nobler gifts , but
* Essai , &c , tome 1 , p . 6 j tome 6 , p . 149 . f Book VI . iv . p . 39 . That the heat of the sun was the cause of the blackness of negroes was long ago doubted by Sir Thomas Brown ; and the grounds of his doubts may be found set forth at length in his own quaint and fanciful way , in his Inquiries into Vulgar and -Common Errors . —Book VI . ch . x . xi , xii .
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The Philosophy of the Rl&tory of Mankind , 89
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No . 62 . H
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1832, page 89, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1806/page/17/
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