The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1857-10-13
From the New York Lilly Ncas.
WHAT MAKES THE NEGRO BLACK

Under this head one of religlots Contemporaries
gives in its miscellaneous department the following ex
poded theory resurrection from the facies Of the
past by one of the most distinguished scientific men Of
this city, as follows:
g Dr. Draper of New York. gives the following expla.
nation Human blood is made up of little cells contain
ing, among other elements hmatin, reddish substance
which is largely made of iron One of the duties Of
the liver is the removing of the old blood cells and the
forming of ones and this duty includes the carrying
out from the system of all excess Of hamatin
g A hot climate dsturbs the normal action Of the
blood and also of the liver Imperfect oxygen attends
great heat and adds to the darkness Of the atea blood
while, by the want of energetic respiration which il in
wolves, there Is overfaness and torpdy of the liver
The hamatin therefore, by this inacon of the great
cleansing agent is left in the system, and wandering
about takes refuge in the lower and spherical cells Of the
cuticle which it thus bronEes from orangeawny down to
negro black according TO the heat Of the climate the in
activity of the liver, and the amount of hamatin left
refuse in the system.
Cold checs the notion Of the liver equally with heat
and therefore, the complexion of the Esquimaux APP
proachcs that of the Mongoan and negro This is GER
tainly simple and ineligible explanation. The Ten
dency of coloring matter to depose itself in the cells Of
the cuticc is well known But let it not be thought
that this da-keng process is the result Of dsorderod
the of unheaf action OF the liver In that
it would appear that Poyidence designed only the
temperate to be inhabited and the wealth of the
tropics to be lost to mankind In fact, the health and
vyor of the tropical tribes show that all the earth is mans
intended dwelling place. 7
We astonished at DR. Diapers recklcssness in this
matter, far the negros color is concerned There
is at least passage in Holy Writ which ought to deter
any Christian philosopher from advancing such theory
except upon the very strongest grounds But leaving
Scripture, find everything in physiological and ethno
logical science against the Doctor But the following
paragraph from another exchange will every pur-
pose of framing objection in words:
opinion that climate alone is capable Of producing all the
diverstes of complexion remarkable in the human
very few facts may suffice to show that such
not be the Thus the negroes Of Van Diemans
Land who among the blacklist people on earth live
in climate cold that Of Iceland, while the Indo
Chinese nations who live in tropical ASIA Of brown
and olive complexion is remarked by Humboldt that
the American tribes of the equinoctisl regions have
darker skins than the mountainous Of the temperate
zone SO, also, the Puelches Of the Mageianc Plains,
beyond the y-fth degree of South latitude ALSO
utely darker than the Abpodes Tobias and other tribes
who are many degrees the equator Again, the
Charus, who live south Of the Rio de la Plata, al
most black while the Guyacas under the line among
the farest Of the American tribes Finally not to null
tpy examples those nations of the Caucasian which
have become inhabitants of the tord in both hem
phees although their descendants have been for oenu
res and in Africa for many centuries exposed to the most
active influence Of the climate have never in solitary
instance exhibited the Transformation from Caucasian
to q negro complexion"
Dr. Draper should have the tcmerity, the scienti
&c assurance, to deny this perhaps he will explain pho
sophicay the phenomena Of the following which is not
solitary instance Of its kind and having done that,
perhaps he will give reliable recipe by which the Ethio
plan can change his skin, or the leopard his spots
'.Ancgro woman in Rockingham county Virginia late
y birth to child which of sable hue from the
oins downward the upper part of its body being Of
clear, white complexion"
If this is not an adequate tax upon the learned Doctors
philosophical attanments perhaps he will tell by what
climate alters the shapcof the canim pevis limbs
and hair All these questions being settled in accordance
with the laws of cnatology, shall begin to be salts
fled for the present and will leave hybridsm cutaneow
odoand the comparative progress Of the for future
consideration which perhaps be taken up under the
title of the Hamatnism of the Human Anatomy