Chapter 12

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_[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. of them as well Women as Men to work in his Plantations,) whether their Children come Black into the world; he answer'd, That they did not, but were brought forth of almost the like Reddish Colour with our _European_ Children; and having further enquir'd, how long it was before these Infants appear'd Black, be reply'd, that 'twas not wont to be many daies. And agreeable to this account I find that, given us in a freshly publish'd French Book written by a _Jesuit_, that had good opportunity of Knowing the Truth of what he Delivers, for being one of the Missionaries of his Order into the Southern _America_ upon the Laudable Design of Converting Infidels to Christianity, he Baptiz'd several Infants, which when newly Born, were much of the same Colour with _European_ Babes, but within about a Week began to appear of the Hue of their Parents. But more Pregnant is the Testimony of our Countrey-man _Andrew Battel_, who being sent Prisoner by the _Portugalls_ to _Angola_, liv'd there, and in the adjoyning Regions, partly as a Prisoner, partly as a Pilot, and partly as a Souldier, near 18. years, and he mentioning the _African_ Kingdom of _Longo_, peopl'd with Blacks, has this passage:[12] _The Children in this Countrey are Born White, and change their Colour in two dayes to a Perfect Black_. As for Example, _The_ Portugalls _which dwell in the Kingdome of_ Longo _have sometimes Children by the_ Negroe_-women, and many times the Fathers are deceived, thinking, when the Child is Born, that it is theirs, and within two dayes it proves the Son or Daughter of a_ Negroe,_ which the_ Portugalls _greatly grieve at_; And the same person has elsewhere a Relation, which, if he have made no use at all of the liberty of a Traveller, is very well worth our Notice, since this, together with that we have formerly mention'd of Seminal Impressions, shews a possibility, that a Race of _Negroes_ might be begun, though none of the Sons of _Adam_, for many Precedent Generations were of that Complexion. For I see not why it should not be at least as possible, that White Parents may sometimes have Black Children, as that _African Negroes_ should sometimes have lastingly White ones, especially since concurrent causes may easily more befriend the Productions of the Former kind, than under the scorching Heat of _Africa_ those of the Latter. And I remember on the occasion of what he delivers, that of the White Raven formerly mention'd, the Possessor affirm'd to me, that in the Nest out of which he was taken White, they found with him but one other Young one, and that he was of as Jetty a Black as any common Raven. But let us hear our Author himself[13]; _Here are_ (sayes he, speaking of the formerly mention'd Regions) _Born in this Countrey White Children, which is very rare among them, for their Parents are_ Negroes; _And when any of them are Born, they are presented to the King, and are call'd_ Dondos; _these are as White as any White Men. These are the Kings Witches, and are brought up in Witchcraft, and alwayes wait on the King: There is no man that dare meddle with these_ Dondos, _if they go to the Market they may take what they lift, for all Men stand in awe of them. The King of_ Longo _hath four of them_. And yet this Countrey in our Globes is plac'd almost in the midst of the Torrid Zone (four or five Degrees Southward of the Line.) And our Author elsewhere tells us of the Inhabitants, that they are so fond of their Blackness, that they will not suffer any that is not of that Colour (as the _Portugalls_ that come to Trade thither) to be so much as Buri'd in their Land, of which he annexes a particular example,[14] that may be seen in his Voyage preserv'd by our Industrious Countreyman Mr. _Purchas_. But it is high time for me to dismiss Observations, and go on with Experiments.

[11] _Piso_ Nat. & Med. Hist. _Brasil. lib_ 1. in fine.

[12] _Purchas_ Pilgrim. Second part, Seventh Book 3. Chap. Sect 5.

[13] _Purchas_. Ibid.

[14] _Purchas_ Ibid. in fin

_EXPERIMENT XII._

The way, _Pyrophilus,_ of producing Whiteness by Chymical Præcipitations is very well worth our observing, for thereby Bodyes of very Differing Colours as well as Natures, though dissolv'd in Several Liquors, are all brought into _Calces_ or Powders that are White. Thus we find that not only Crabs-eyes, that are of themselves White, and Pearls that are almost so, but _Coral_ and _Minium_ that are Red, being dissolv'd in Spirit of Vinegar, may be uniformly Præcipitated by Oyl of _Tartar_ into White Powders. Thus Silver and Tin separately dissolv'd in _Aqua Fortis_, will the one Præcipitate it self, and the other be Præcipitated by common Salt-water into a White _Calx_, and so will Crude Lead and Quicksilver first dissolv'd likewise in _Aqua Fortis_. The like _Calx_ will be afforded as I have try'd by a Solution of that shining Mineral Tinglass dissolv'd in _Aqua Fortis_, and Præcipitated out of it; and divers of these _Calces_ may be made at least as Fair and White, if not better Colour'd, if instead of Oyl of _Tartar_ they were Præcipitated with Oyl of _Vitriol_, or with another Liquor I could Name. Nay, that Black Mineral _Antimony_ it self, being reduc'd by and with the Salts that concurr to the Composition of common Sublimate, into that Cleer though Unctuous Liquor that Chymists commonly call Rectifi'd Butter of _Antimony_, will by the bare affusion of store of Fair Water be struck down into that Snow-white Powder, which when the adhering Saltness is well wash'd off, Chymists are pleas'd to call _Mercurius Vitæ_, though the like Powder may be made of _Antimony_, without the addition of any _Mercury_ at all. And this Lactescence if I may so call it, does also commonly ensue when Spirit of Wine, being Impregnated with those parts of Gums or other Vegetable Concretions, that are suppos'd to abound with Sulphureous Corpuscles, fair Water is suddenly pour'd upon the Tincture or Solution. And I remember that very lately I did, for Tryal sake, on a Tincture of _Benjamin_ drawn with Spirit of Wine, and brought to be as Red as Blood, pour some fair Water, which presently mingling with the Liquor, immediately turn'd the whole Mixture White. But if such Seeming Milks be suffer'd to stand unstirr'd for a convenient while, they are wont to let fall to the bottome a Resinous Substance, which the Spirit of Wine Diluted and Weakned by the Water pour'd into it was unable to support any longer. And something of Kin to this change of Colour in Vegetables is that, which Chymists are wont to observe upon the pouring of Acid Spirits upon the Red Solution of _Sulphur_, dissolv'd in an Infusion of Pot-ashes, or in some other sharp _Lixivium_, the Præcipitated _Sulphur_ before it subsides, immediately turning the Red Liquor into a White one. And other Examples might be added of this way of producing Whiteness in Bodyes by Præcipitating them out of the Liquors wherein they have been Dissolv'd; but I think it may be more usefull to admonish you, _Pyrophilus_, that this observation admits of Restrictions, and is not so Universal, as by this time perhaps you have begun to think it; For though most Præcipitated Bodyes are White, yet I know some that are not; For Gold Dissolv'd in _Aqua Regis_, whether you Præcipitate it with Oyl of _Tartar_, or with Spirit of _Sal Armoniack_, will not afford a White but a Yellow _Calx_. _Mercury_ also though reduc'd into Sublimate, and Præcipitated with Liquors abounding with Volatile Salts, as the Spirits drawn from Urine, Harts-horn, and other Animal substances, yet will afford, as we Noted in our first Experiment about Whiteness and Blackness, a White Præcipitate, yet with some Solutions hereafter to be mentioned, it will let fall an Orange-Tawny Powder. And so will Crude _Antimony_, if, being dissolv'd in a strong Lye, you pour (as farr as I remember) any Acid Liquor upon the Solution newly Filtrated, whilst it is yet Warm. And if upon the Filtrated Solution of _Vitriol_, you pour a Solution of one of these fix'd Salts, there will subside a Copious substance, very farr from having any Whiteness, which the Chymists are pleas'd to call, how properly I have elsewhere examin'd, the _Sulphur of Vitriol_. So that most part of Dissolv'd Bodyes being by Præcipitation brought to White Powders, and yet some affording Præcipitates of other Colours, the reason of both the Phænomena may deserve to be enquir'd into.

_EXPERIMENT XIII._

Some Learned Modern Writers[15] are of Opinion, that the Account upon which Whiteness and Blackness ought to be call'd, as they commonly are, the two Extreme Colours, is, That Blackness (by which I presume is meant the Bodyes endow'd with it) receives no other Colours; but Whiteness very easily receives them all; whence some of them compare Whiteness to the _Aristotelian Materia prima_, that being capable of any sort of Forms, as they suppose White Bodyes to be of every kind of Colour. But not to Dispute about Names or Expressions, the thing it self that is affirm'd as Matter of Fact, seems to be True enough in most Cases, not in all, or so, as to hold Universally. For though it be a common observation among Dyers, That Clothes, which have once been throughly imbu'd with Black, cannot so well afterwards be Dy'd into Lighter Colours, the præexistent Dark Colour infecting the Ingredients, that carry the Lighter Colour to be introduc'd, and making it degenerate into Some more Sad one; Yet the Experiments lately mention'd may shew us, that where the change of Colour in Black Bodies is attempted, not by mingling Bodyes of Lighter Colours with them, but by Addition of such things as are proper to alter the Texture of those Corpuscles that contain the Black Colour, 'tis no such difficult matter, as the lately mention'd Learned Men imagine, to alter the Colour of Black Bodyes. For we saw that Inks of several Kinds might in a trice be depriv'd of all their Blackness; and those made with Logwood and Red-Roses might also be chang'd, the one into a Red, the other into a Reddish Liquor; and with Oyl of _Vitriol_ I have sometimes turn'd Black pieces of Silk into a kind of Yellow, and though the Taffaty were thereby made Rotten, yet the spoyling of that does no way prejudice the Experiment, the change of Black Silk into Yellow, being never the less True, because the Yellow Silk is the less good. And as for Whiteness, I think the general affirmation of its being so easily Destroy'd or Transmuted by any other Colour, ought not to be receiv'd without some Cautions and Restrictions. For whereas, according to what I formerly Noted, Lead is by Calcination turned into that Red Powder we call _Minium_; And Tin by Calcination reduc'd to a White _Calx_, the common Putty that is sold and us'd so much in Shops, instead of being, as it is pretended and ought to be, only the _Calx_ of Tin, is, by the Artificers that make it, to save the charge of Tin, made, (as some, of themselves have confess'd, and as I long suspected by the Cheap rate it may be bought for) but of half Tin and half Lead, if not far more Lead than Tin, and yet the Putty in spight of so much Lead is a very White Powder, without disclosing any mixture of _Minium_. And so if you take two parts of Copper, which is a High-colour'd Metall, to but one of Tin, you may by Fusion bring them into one Mass, wherein the Whiteness of the Tin is much more Conspicuous and Predominant than the Reddishness of the Copper. And on this occasion it may not be Impertinent to mention an Experiment, which I relate upon the Credit of a very Honest man, whom I purposely enquir'd of about it, being my self not very fond of making Tryals with _Arsenick_, the Experiment is this, That if you Colliquate _Arsenick_ and Copper in a due proportion, the _Arsenick_ will Blanch the Copper both within and without, which is an Experiment well enough Known; but when I enquir'd, whether or no this White mixture being skilfully kept a while upon the Cupel would not let go its _Arsenick_, which made Whiteness its prædominant Colour, and return to the Reddishness of Copper, I was assur'd of the Affirmative; so that among Mineral Bodyes, some of those that are White, may be far more capable, than those I am reasoning with seem to have known, of Eclipsing others, and of making their Colour Prædominant in Mixtures. In further Confirmation of which may be added, that I remember that I also took a lump of Silver and Gold melted together, wherein by the Æstimate of a very Experienced Refiner, there might be about a fourth or third part of Gold, and yet the Yellow Colour of the Gold was so hid by the White of the Silver, that the whole Mass appear'd to be but Silver, and when it was rubb'd upon the Touchstone, an ordinary beholder could scarce have distinguish'd it from the Touch of common Silver; though if I put a little _Aqua Fortis_ upon any part of the White Surface it had given the Touchstone, the Silver in the moistned part being immediately taken up and conceal'd by the Liquor, the Golden Particles would presently disclose that native Yellow, and look rather as if Gold, than if the above mention'd mixture, had been rubb'd upon the Stone.

[15] See _Scaliger_ Exercit. 325. Sect. 9.

_EXPERIMENT XIV._

I took a piece of Black-horn, (polish'd as being part of a Comb) this with a piece of broken glass I scrap'd into many thin and curdled flakes, some shorter and some longer, and having laid a pretty Quantity of these scrapings together, I found, as I look'd for, that the heap they compos'd was White, and though, if I laid it upon a clean piece of White Paper, its Colour seem'd somewhat Eclips'd by the greater Whiteness of the Body it was compar'd with, looking somewhat like Linnen that had been sulli'd by a little wearing, yet if I laid it upon a very Black Body, as upon a Beaver Hatt, it then appear'd to be of a good White, which Experiment, that you may in a trice make when you please, seems very much to Disfavour both their Doctrine that would have Colours to flow from the Substantial Forms of Bodyes, and that of the Chymists also, who ascribe them to one or other of their three Hypostatical Principles; for though in our Case there was so great a Change made, that the same Body without being substantially either Increas'd or Lessened, passes immediately from one extreme Colour to another (and that too from Black to White) yet this so great and sudden change is effected by a slight Mechanical Transposition of parts, there being no Salt or _Sulphur_ or _Mercury_ that can be pretended to be Added or Taken away, nor yet any substantial Form that can reasonably be suppos'd to be Generated and Destroy'd, the Effect proceeding only from a Local Motion of the parts which so vary'd their Position as to multiply their distinct Surfaces, and to Qualifie them to Reflect far more Light to the Eye, than they could before they were scrap'd off from the entire piece of Black horn.

_EXPERIMENT XV._

And now, _Pyrophilus_, it will not be improper for us to take some notice of an Opinion touching the cause of Blackness, which I judged it not so seasonable to Question, till I I had set down some of the Experiments, that might justifie my dissent from it. You know that of late divers Learned Men, having adopted the three Hypostatical Principles, besides other Notions of the Chymists, are very inclinable to reduce all Qualities of Bodies to one or other of those three Principles, and Particularly assign for the cause of Blackness the Sootie steam of _adust_ or _torrifi'd Sulphur_. But I hope that what we have deliver'd above to countenance the Opinion we have propos'd about the Cause of Blackness, will so easily supply you with several Particulars that may be made use of against this Opinion, that I shall now represent to You but two things concerning it.