T h e Slavonian nations or Sauromatae, are later defcended from the
Medes, * a nation formerly living in modern Perfia; they were
long fettled to the North o f the Caucafus and« Black Sea, a country
which is very hot in fummer; and in the fifth century they
were near the Danube, from whence they gradually fpread to the
countries, which they now occupy: this account rationally re-
l'olves the ftrange phenomenon, viz. that they Hill keep the national
charafter, o f a Southern tribe. Th e y migrated from the Sou th
in a later period than the Goths, and other T c a tonic tribes;
and have had more opportunities o f mixing with Afiatic tribes' o f
a brown complexion, than the Northern Danes and Goths. This,
inftanee, I believe, confirms the -above affection; and it likewife
appears from thence, that the fairer nations being expofed to. a more
powerful fun in hot climates, foon acquire a browner Complexion.
However, when they have once attained to ;a certain ftandard cha-
radter, they preferve it with very immaterial alterations h utjl fu p -
pofe that they make no cpnfiderable change in their food, in their
mode of d'reffing and living, and that they do not prOmifcuoitfly
-intermarry with negroes, mulattos, or other aboriginal or mixed
Tribes o f hot climates, in which cafes, there are juft reafons to fuf-
pedt that their character and complexion muft gradually degenerate,.
and,
* Died, Sicul. lib, 2c!q..& Plin, Hift, Nat, lib. vi. c ,7 ,
and become more and more debated; but i f negroes,- and other
fwarthy tribes, be tranfplanted into temperate, or nearly cold climates,
they do not immediately change, nor do th e y . eafily -become
fairer, but preferve jheir original complexion- for a- longer fp'ace
o f time.. When they only intermarry in their own race, the change,
i f any, »/-imperceptible in their offspring for many generations.
I will here only hint, at the probable caufes o f this phenomenon;
the tranfition, from being brown in complexion to-fair, is1,-‘ it fepfiis,
more difficult, than, that from fair to brown*; the Epidermis admits
the beams o f the fun and the adtion of the air, in colouring.
tht 'reticulum mucofum brown j hut when onceat is coloured, nothing
is fufficiently powerful to extradl the brown colour ;■ and. this
feems to be founded in daily experience; a man being perhaps only
one day expofed to a powerful fun, fhall become ftrongly tinted
with brown; when, to remove this- hue, perhaps fix or eight
months o f clofe confinement, are not fufficient. It feems therefore
more and more probable, that the firft ftamen o f an embryo ■
partakes, much o f the colour, fize, form and habit of the parents ;
and that two different tribes, having gradually undergone a different
round o f climates, food, and cuftoms; and coming afterwards
at different periods o f time, and by different ways, into- the
fame climate, but preferving a different mode of living, and being
partly fupported by different food, m a y ' neverthe-lefs preferve an
N n 2 evident
C AU SE S
Of v a r i e
t i e s .