grave; and a violation of the rights of fepulture would be ftill confidered as the firft of crimes.

Little can be gleaned up, I am apprehenfive, from the hiftory of the human fpecies, relative to the queftion; but amidst its varieties, we find the Dondos, or. African white negroes; the Kakerlaks, or Chacrelas of Afia; and the Blafard, or White Indian of the Ifthmus of Darien; all of whom have fome peculiarities correfponding with those by which the Cretin is diftinguished. The Dondos are most common at Congo, Loango, and Angola, and the Kakerlaks, or Chacrelas, in the Java iflands; but as they are not very numerous, they have been confidered as a Lufus Naturæ, and her accidental productions*. Of the white Indians of Darien little was known in Europe before 1680, though Cortez had given a long and minute defcription

It is remarkable, however, this Lufus Naturæ in the Java islands has been extended even to the monkey. The governor of Batavia had one or two white ones in 1785, brought from thofe islands, though they are in all that part of the world univeríally black or brown. Mynheer Butterkoper, and Mynheer Meffa the Water-Fifcal, fhewed them to a friend of mine. The face was of a milky white, the eyes red, and they were between two and three feet high.

Las Cartas de Don. Hernando Cortez de la Conquifta de Mexico al Emperador. They have been tranflated into Latin, and are in the collection of Hervagius, un

der

tion of them in his letters to Charles V. The ftature of the Dondos, the Kakerlak, and White Indian is nearly that of the Cretin of the Pays de Vallais, and their whole apppearance announces exceffive debility and weakness. Their fimilitude, in many other refpects, feems to give some weight to the fuppofition of a like deficiency in their formation. The weakness of the eye, they are all in fome degree fubject to; deafness in one degree or other is peculiar to them; they all die early; and they have all the fame scanty portion of intelligence.

Much has been written* on the blackness of the negro, and for fome time, like the atoms of Epicurus, one fyftem regularly confuted another. Whatever the derangement which produces the variety in the negro may be owing to, it may poffibly bear fome relation to that which occafions an alteration, nearly as violent, in the human fpecies of the Vallais. Mr. Michel, a

der the title F. Cortefii de Infulis nuper repertis Narratio ad Carolum Quintum. For an account of the white Indian fee Buffon, Hift. Naturelle de l'Homme. Dampier's Voyages, vol. IV. p. 252, and Melange de Literature, tom. I. where Voltaire has given a very minute defcription of the white Indian brought to Paris in 1744.

* See Sanctorinus, Malpighi, Albinus, Ruyfch, Haller, Winflow and Heifter. Town's Letter to the Royal Society. Hift. de l'Academie de Sciences. 1702. Differtation de Monf. Barrere. Traitè de Monf. le Cat. Zimmerman Geograph. Zoolog. & Memoires de l'Academie de Berlin.

name

name of fome eminence at Berlin, for anatomical inquiries, has remarked in one of his letters, "Vous obfervez la couleur de fperme eft diffe"rente de celui des Hommes blancs. Vous at"tribuez, au Changement de ce fperme, leur me"tamorphofe de noir en blanc; fi l' on ajoute á "cela, la couleur differente de leur Cerveau, de "leur Sang, et de la liqueur qui forme leur Epi"derme, on verra que l' effet qui blanchit les Negres eft fondé dans un changement des hu"meurs les plus effentielles de corps."

Taking the pofition for granted, how this effential alteration has been brought about will be ftill matter for phyfical difcuffion. Air, water, aliment, indolence and filth may be powerful causes, and they become undoudtedly more forcible when combined, and when they have acquired increased ftrength from their continued operation for a long courfe of years, on fucceffive generations. The air is moft avowedly infalubrious on the whole ifthmus of Darien, and what appears decifive, as to its influence, is the known fact, that the female negroes brought from

* If this be an error, it is an error at least of long duration. Herodotus has advanced boldly: n yom de autwy τnv απίενται εις τας γυναίκας 8 καταπερ των άλλων ανθρώπων· εσι λευκή, αλλά μελαινα κατάπερ το χρώμα του αυτην δε και AIDIOTTES ATIEVτaι boghv Thalia. 240. Ed. Weffel. It is but fair however to add that Ariftotle denies this exprefsly. Hift, Animal. lib. III. C. 27. Tερ σпsρμат; and also Gener. Animal. lib. II. C. 2. περι της το σπερματΘ- φύσεως.

Africa to Carthagena and Panama, where the climate is to the last degree inhospitable, and the perfpiration of the body aftonishing, produce more of the white Indians than in

of the new continent,

any other part

The fame causes regularly fubfifting, it may be asked why they are not attended uniformly with the fame effects. To refolve the difficulty, may it not be queftioned, whether the humours of certain perfons are not in fome fecret, unknown ftate, which facilitates the metamorphofis.

To those whofe ftudies lead them to investigate the human frame, with its diforders, the fubject is not altogether an uninterefting one. We owe

much to the labours of great and learned men during the last century; but, notwithstanding the rapid advances they have made in every part of fcience, much remains to be yet done. A wide field is ftill open for researches into human nature, and pofterity may, perhaps, discover what we have in vain attempted to explore.

VOL. III.

Τ

A DESCRIP

A DESCRIPTION of the EYE of the SEAL; by Mr. HEY, of LEEDS.

READ OCTOBER 26, 1787.

'N the debate concerning the immediate organ of vifion, it has been afferted, and is taken for granted by the best authors, that the eyes of the feal and porcupine are differently formed from those of other animals; having the optic nerve inserted in the axis of the pupil. This difference of ftructure has been urged as an argument to prove, that the retina is that part of the eye which receives the picture, and conveys to us the idea of external objects. For fince, according to the laws of optics, the picture must be formed in and about the axis of the pupil; and fince the choroides is wanting at the infertion of the optic nerve, the choroid coat cannot, in these animals, receive the complete picture of any object.

Though the argument fails with respect to the animal whofe eye I am about to describe, yet I do not mean to exprefs any doubt that the retina is the proper organ of vifion. The preceding obfervation is mentioned as that which excited my curiofity to know, whether this de

viation