Page images
PDF
EPUB

ness," he represents as -66 analogous to the effects produced by the temperature of arid climates on the hair of other animals.”

The point herein at issue between the doctor and ourselves is easy of solution. It depends for its decision, not on ingenious argument, but just perception-not on the exercise of our reason, but the evidence of our senses. Every one, therefore, possessing the use of his senses, is a competent judge of the matter in dispute, and can, without the least inconvenience or difficulty, determine for himself. As far as our observations have gone, and our attention to the subject has not been inconsiderable, we can find no ground for the assertion, that the hair of the negro is either sparser or coarser than that of the European. We do not believe, that, in these respects, there exists any perceptible and uniform difference between the hair of those two races of men. In many instances, indeed, the hair of the negro appears to be coarser, and in some, more thinly planted in the head, than that of certain white men: but in an equal number of cases the reverse is true. For a decision of the subject we appeal to the observation of an enlightened public, persuaded that they will prefer the testimony of their own senses to assertion of either Dr. Smith or ourselves.

But granting the action of an arid climate on the human hair to be precisely such as our author pronounces it-admitting it to prove the cause of an actual mutation of European into African hair, wherein consists the analogy between this effect and that which it produces on the same excrescence in other animals? The uniform effect of a tropical climate on such quadrupeds as are natives of a temperate one, is, to alter their hair in such a way as to change it from a warmer into a cooler kind of covering. The fine, close, and nappy wool of the sheep it converts into a substance considerably coarser, and more thinly planted. The same thing is true with regard to the fur of the fox and the beaver. They, too, are changed into a hairy, harsh, and cooler kind of clothing.

Very different, however-we ought to say directly opposite is the effect, in relation to man, which Dr. Smith attributes to the climate of Africa. Instead of changing wool into hair, it is, in this case, the conversion of hair into wool-the loose and open

locks of the European into the close and tangled nap of the African. It is, in reality, to furnish the head, not with a cooler, but, if there be any difference, with a warmer covering. For it is obvious, we think, that the hair of the white man admits air to the skin of the head, and suffers perspiration to escape from it, with more facility than that of the negro. But ventilation and perspiration are cooling processes; and hence the superior warmth as it would seem, of the covering attached to the head of the African.

The next agent which Dr. Smith represents as instrumental in imparting a frizzled form to the hair of the negro, is the intense heat of the climate of Africa. This burning temperature says he, "not of the atmosphere only, but especially of the earth, in the dust of which young savages, regardless of decency, often roll themselves, will have its effect in increasing the close nap of the wool, for the same reason that a hair held near a flame will coil itself up, or the leaves of vegetables be rolled together under the direct rays of an intense sun."

In the most intemperate section of Africa, of which any account entitled to credit has fallen under our notice, the elevation of the mercury, when under the direct influence of the solar rays, never exceeds one hundred and forty degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer. Its general average is by no means so high. To state it at one hundred and twenty degrees is an ample allowance. The human hair, however, even when separated from the head, in which case it is soon deprived of its native moisture, will sustain a degree of temperature greatly superior to either of these, without assuming a crisped appearance. We have ourselves frequently exposed it to an atmosphere heated to one hundred and sixty degrees, and produced in it no perceptible alteration. We are persuaded that many degrees more might have been added, without any material variation in the

result.

When attached to the head, where it is regularly supplied with its oleagenous moisture, and where the principle of life can exert itself in its favour, the degree of heat which the human hair is capable of sustaining without alteration is almost incredible. In the celebrated experiments of Drs. Fordyce

and Blagden, recorded in the transactions of the Royal Society of London, it is known to have borne the action of two hundred and forty-four degrees of Fahrenheit; and in those of Du Hamel and Tilset, related in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences of Paris, it bore a temperature amounting to upwards of three hundred degrees. Yet in neither instance did it contract a frizzled appearance, nor suffer in its character, any perceptible change. With a knowledge of facts so decisive as these -for versed as he is in philosophical literature, we will not doubt their being perfectly familiar to him—we cannot withhold an expression of our surprize, that Dr. Smith should have attributed to the ordinary temperature of the African climate, ‘a power of crisping the human hair. Were the heat of that climate doubled, and could man, under these circumstances continue to inhabit it, it would still be incapable of producing the effect.

In addition to the preceding we state it as a fact, which must be familiar to every well informed and impartial observer, that, instead of becoming thinner, shorter, and more frizzled, the European hair is rendered by the influence of a warm climate very perceptibly thicker, longer, and straighter. Thus the Spaniards and Italians possess longer, thicker, and staighter hair than the French, the French than the Germans, and the Germans than nations which are further to the north. The hair of the Spaniards and Portuguese is marked by a growth still more luxuriant beneath the fostering sun of South America. We challenge history to produce a single instance, in which, without an admixture of foreign blood, the European hair has become short and frizzled, merely by a removal into a tropical climate.

A preternatural dryness of the hair of the negro is a third source from which our author endeavours to derive its involuted form. "Whatever," says he, "be the nutriment of the hair, it would seem, by the strong and offensive smell of the African negro, to be combined in him with some gas or fluid of a very volatile and ardent nature. The evaporation of such a gas," continues he, "rendering the surface dry, and disposed to contract, while the centre continues distended, tends necessarily to produce an involution of the hair."

It is once more the fortune of Dr. Smith and ourselves to have received very different impressions, and, therefore, to entertain different sentiments, in relation to a point which constitutes an object of external sense. Towards an ascertainment of the comparative dryness of the European and the African hair nothing is necessary but a careful examination an accurate use of our fingers and eyes. From such an examination, it will, we think, appear to every one incontestibly obvious, that the doctor has fallen into another error, in point of fact, misled, we apprehend, by substituting conjecture in the place of observation. The surface of the African hair is not rendered preternaturally dry either by the evaporation of a volatile and ardent gas, or by ony other process. It is no less moist and oily than the hair of the European. Although we will not assert that it is more so, we are by no means convinced that the assertion would be unfounded. From the supposed cause of change, then, under our consideration, our author derives no shadow of aid in his attempt to account for the involution of the African hair. We here, as on a former occasion, invite the public to examine for themselves, and will cheerfully abide the issue of their judg ment. We moreover anticipate, with confidence, their concur. rence with us in sentiment, that, for the reasons which have been stated, Dr. Smith has entirely failed to account for the peculiarity of the phenomenon in question.

In contemplating the varieties that mark the character of the human hair, we perceive, arising out of them, another objection to the hypothesis of our author, which does not appear to have attracted his notice. We allude to the difference which exists between the European hair and that of the aboriginal inhabitants of America. This objection, although it may, at first view, be regarded as of little importance, will, notwithstanding, appear the more difficult of refutation, in proportion as it is more closely and attentively considered. We venture to assert, that, when accurately examined, the hair of our Indian will be found to differ from that of the European no less essentially than the hair of the negro. Nor are we prepared to believe the difference explicable on the ground of any influence arising out of a diversity of climate, state of society, or manner of living. It

is impracticable for us, at present, to dwell on this phenomenon, and to present it to the reader in the full extent and force of the objection which it offers to the principles of our author. We do conceive, however, that it was entitled to some consideration, in a theory which professes to account for all the striking diversities in the appearance of man. In the hair of the American Indian, when examined with a microscope, there is discovered a peculiar flatness, nothing of which is perceptible in the hair of the European, and which is wholly inexplicable from any cause arising out of the condition of savage life.

(To be continued.)

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

THOUGHTS OF A HERMIT.-NO. III.

The following paper, although of a character purely, political, we admit, without hesitation, to a place in the Port Folio. It comes from the pen of a distinguished scholar and well read statesman, is free from all taint of party spirit, and relates to a national subject in which every American must feel a deep and lively interest. Of the correctness of some of the views of our correspondent we are by no means convinced: such however, is the importance of others, and the ingenuity of all, that we should deem ourselves culpable in withholding them from the public. We avail ourselves of the present opportunity to observe, that articles even on general politics shall appear but seldom in these pages; and that, to obtain a place at all, they must be written with ability and perfect moderation, and must relate to subjects of a national moment. On these conditions we perceive, at present, no objection to their occasional admission. Should our readers, however, think otherwise, we shall submit to their decision, and intermeddle no further in political concerns. ED.

ON THE FUTURE DESTINY OF THE UNITED STATES.

The rapid increase of our population and extension of our settlements, furnish a subject of speculation that is interesting

« PreviousContinue »