358


sequitur  from  the  premisesi  were  they  proved  or  ad-
mitted, we  will  submit  the  following  brief,  but  satis-
factory answer  to  his  proposition,  viz :  that  it  mat-
ters not  what  may  have  been  the  cases  with  the  lower
animals,  that  in  regard  to  man,  such  has  not  been
the  fact ;  for,  if  history  is  at  all  to  be  depended
upon,  the  Negro  has  been  the  same  black-skinned,
woolly-headed  animal  for  the  last  two  thousand
years.  Herodotus,  in  the  year  413,  B.  C,  describes
his  black  complexion  and  woolly  hair ;  and  we  know
from  experience,  that  a  white  man  may  live  in  a
tropical  climate,  and  even  turn  savage,  without  af-
fecting the  color  of  his  skin,  or  the  shape,  direction,
or  inclination  of  his  hair,  while  pure  Negroes  may
be  propagated  from  generation  to  generation  in  tem-
perate climates,  but  always  with  the  same  rete  mu-
cosum  and  flat  frizzled  wool  issuing  at  right  angles
from  the  epidermis  of  his  scalp.  To  these  unyield-
ing facts,  all  reasoning  from  analogy  must  succumb,
and  all  biasses  of  religion  and  humanity  must  give
way.  In  page  7,  Dr.  Prichard  tells  that  '  he  does
not  regard  this  question  as  one  of  which  the  decision
is  a  matter  of  indifference,  either  in  religion  or  hu-
manity.' This  is  ad  captandum  vulgus,  and  not  the
language  of  a  philosopher  in  search  of  truth.  His
mind  should  be  unprejudiced, — ^he  ought  to  have  no
hypothesis  nor  theory  to  support,  no  polar  star  but
truth.  We  shall  now  proceed  to  the  second  branch
of  the  inquiry.
"  Dr.  Prichard  has  devoted  the  greater  part  of
one   section  of  his  book,  to  what  he  appears  to

esteem  full  proof,  that  the  tegumentary  appendages

30*


354  NECROMANIA.
