Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664)

by Robert Boyle

There is another Opinion concerning the Complexion of Negroes, that is not only embrac'd by many of the more Vulgar Writers, but likewiſe by that ingenious Traveller Mr. Sandys, and by a late moſt learned Critick, beſides other men of Note, and theſe would have the Blackneſs of Negroes an effect of Noah's Curſe ratify'd by God's, upon Cham; But though I think that even a Naturaliſt may without diſparagement believe all the Miracles atteſted by the Holy Scriptures, yet in this caſe to flye to a Supernatural Cauſe, will, I fear, look like Shifting off the Difficulty, inſtead of Reſolving it; for we enquire not the Firſt and Univerſal, but the Proper, Immediate, and Phyſical Cauſe of the Jetty Colour of Negroes; And not only we do not find expreſſed in the

Scripture, that the Curſe meant by Noah to Cham, was the Blackneſs of his Poſterity, but we do find plainly enough there that the Curſe was quite another thing, namely that he ſhould be a Servant of Servants, that is by an Ebraiſm, a very Abject Servant to his Brethren, which accordingly did in part come to paſs, when the Iſraelites of the poſterity of Sem, ſubdued the Canaanites, that deſcended from Cham, and kept them in great Subjection. Nor is it evident that Blackneſs is a Curſe, for Navigators tell us of Black Nations, who think ſo much otherwiſe of their own condition, that they paint the Devil White. Nor is Blackneſs inconſiſtent with Beauty, which even to our European Eyes conſiſts not ſo much in Colour, as an Advantageous Stature, a Comely Symmetry of the parts of the Body, and Good Features in the Face. So that I ſee not why Blackneſs ſhould be thought ſuch a Curſe to the Negroes, unleſs perhaps it be, that being wont to go Naked in thoſe Hot Climates, the Colour of their Skin does probably, according to the Doctrine above deliver'd, make the Sun-beams more Scorching to them, than they would prove to a people of a White Complexion.

Greater probability there is, That the Principal Cauſe (for I would not exclude

all concurrent ones) of the Blackneſs of Negroes is ſome Peculiar and Seminal Impreſſion, for not onely we ſee that Blackmore boyes brought over into theſe Colder Climates loſe not their Colour; But good Authors inform us, That the Off-ſpring of Negroes Tranſplanted out of Africa, above a hundred years ago, retain ſtill the Complexion of their Progenitors, though poſſibly in Tract of time it will decay; As on the other ſide, the White people removing into very Hot Climates, have their Skins by the Heat of the Sun ſcorch'd into Dark Colours; yet neither they, nor their Children have been obſerv'd, even in the Countreys of Negroes, to deſcend to a Colour amounting to that of the Natives; whereas I remember I have Read in Piſos[a]¹¹] excellent account of Braſile, that betwixt the Americans and Negroes are generated a diſtinct ſort of Men, which they call Cabocles, and betwixt Portugalls and Æthiopian women, He tells us, he has ſometimes ſeen Twins, whereof one had a White skin, the other a Black; not to mention here ſome other inſtances, he gives, that the productions of the mixtures of differing people, that is (indeed,) the effects of Seminal Impreſſions which they

conſequently argue to have been their Cauſes; and we ſhall not much ſcruple at this, if we conſider, that even Organical parts may receive great Differences from ſuch peculiar Impreſſions, upon what account ſoever they came to be ſetled in the firſt Individual perſons, from whom they are Propogated to Poſterity, as we ſee in the Blobber-Lips and Flat-Noſes of moſt Nations of Negroes. And if we may Credit what Learned men deliver concerning the Little Feet of the Chineſses, the Macrocephali taken notice of by Hippocrates, will not be the only Inſtance we might apply to our preſent purpoſe. And on this occaſion it will not perchance be Impertinent to add ſomething of what I have obſerv'd in other Animals, as that there is a ſort of Hens that want Rumps; And that (not to mention that in ſeveral places there is a ſort of Crows or Daws that are not Cole-black as ours, but partly of a Whitiſh Colour) in ſpight of Porphyries examples of Inſeparable Accidents, I have ſeen a perfectly White Raven, as to Bill as well as Feathers, which I attentively conſidered, for fear of being impos'd upon. And this recalls into my Memory, what a very Ingenious Phyſician has divers times related to me of a young Lady, to whom being call'd, he found that though

ſhe much complain'd of want of Health, yet there appear'd ſo little cauſe either in her Body, or her Condition to Gueſs that She did any more than fancy her ſelf Sick, that ſcrupling to give her Phyſick, he perſwaded her Friends rather to divert her Mind by little Journeys of Pleaſure, in one of which going to Viſit St. Winifrids Well, this Lady, who was a Catholick, and devout in her Religion, and a pretty while in the Water to perform ſome Devotions, and had occaſion to fix her Eyes very attentively upon the Red pipple-ſtones, which in a ſcatter'd order made up a good part of thoſe that appear'd through the water, and a while after growing Bigg, ſhe was deliver'd of a Child, whoſe White Skin was Copiouſly ſpeckl'd with ſpots of the Colour and Bigneſſs of thoſe Stones, and though now this Child have already liv'd ſeveral years, yet ſhe ſtill retains them. I have but two things to add concerning the Blackneſs of Negroes, the one is, that the Seat of that Colour ſeems to be but the thin Epidermes, or outward Skin, for I knew a young Negroe, who having been lightly Sick of the Small Pox or Meaſles, (for it was doubted which of the two was his Diſeaſe) I found by enquiry of a perſon that was concern'd for him, that in thoſe places

where the little Tumors

had broke their paſſage through the Skin, when they were gone, they left Within ſpecks behind them; And the lately commended Piſo aſſures us, that having the opportunity in Braſil to Diſſect many Negroes, he cleerly found that their Blackneſs went no deeper than the very outward Skin, which Cuticula or Epidermis

being remov'd, the undermoſt Skin or Cutis appear'd juſt as White as that of Europæan Bodyes. And the like has been affirmed to me by a Phyſician of our own, whom, hearing he had Diſſectcd a Negroe here in England, I conſulted about this particular. The other thing to be here taken notice of concerning Negroes is, That having enquir'd of an Intelligent acquaintance of mine (who keeps in the Indies about 300.