opinion, see p, 257, who wholly disallows the power of climates to cause the color of the aboriginal negro; but, like Dr. Mitchell, fails to inform us how that, or the other complexions, had their beginning. He seems, however, to have felt that as he was giving an opinion on the subject of human complexions, and that if climates could not have been the cause, he was, therefore, in reason, bound to say something respecting the origin of the negro's black skin. The cause of this he rather thinks, was some ancient disease of the surface of the bodies of a tribe of people, which, by long continuance, became so fixed in their nature, that it formed a permanent and national character, as now seen in all the world, of the negro race.
But from this opinion we dissent, as diseases do not work their own cure, and still retain the very evidence of that disease, which is the black of the negro's skin. It is allowed that the negro tribes, of all men, are the most healthy, their limbs strong and agile, their skins smooth, soft and silky — long lived and free from diseases; which facts but poorly accord with the idea of a diseased skin and, of necessity, diseased blood.
But we are fully satisfied, that the two complexions, black and white, as they appertain to the human race, had their origin in the family of Noah, as we have contended on the foregoing pages. Such a cause is, to the writer's understanding, far more reasonable than any other problem, that as yet has been imagined; such as the climates, a diseased state of the skin, or a father distinct from the father of the other races, as many have believed.
