Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	climate_n	great_a	zone_n	26	3	12.1573	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28975	Experiments and considerations touching colours first occasionally written, among some other essays to a friend, and now suffer'd to come abroad as the beginning of an experimental history of colours / by the Honourable Robert Boyle ...	Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.	1664 (1664)	Wing B3967; ESTC R19422	194,968	470

the best Navigators and Travellers to the West-Indies whose Books or themselves I have consulted on this Subject that excepting perhaps one place or two of small extent there are any Blacks Originally Natives of any part of America for the Blacks now there have been by the Europeans long Transplanted thither though the New World contain in it so great a Variety of Climates and particularly reach quite Cross the Torri'd Zone from one Tropick to another And though it be true that the Danes be a Whiter People than the Spaniards yet that may proceed rather from other causes not here to be enquired into than from the Coldness of the Climate since not onely the Swedes and other Inhabitants of those Cold Countreys are not usually so White as the Danes nor Whiter than other Nations in proportion to their Vicinity to the Pole And since the Writing of the former part of this Essay having an opportunity on a Solemn occasion to take Notice of the Numerous Train of some Extraordinary Embassadours sent from the Russian Emperour to a great Monarch observ'd that though it were then Winter the Colour of their Hair and Skin was far less Whitish than the Danes who Inhabit a milder Region is wont to be but rather for the most part of a Darkish Brown And the Physician to the Embassadour with whom those Russes came being ask'd by me whether in Muscovy it self the Generality of the People were more inclin'd to have Dark-colour'd Hair than Flaxen he answer'd Affirmatively but seem'd to suspect that the True and Antient Russians a Sept of whom he told me he had met with in one of the Provinces of that vast Empire were rather VVhite like the Danes than any thing near so Brown as the present Muscovites whom he guesses to be descended of the Tartars and to have inherited their Colour from them But to Prosecute our former Discourse I shall add for further Proof of the Conjecture I was countenancing that good Authors inform us that there are Negroes in Africa not far from the Cape of good Hope and consequently beyond the Southern Tropick and without the Torrid Zone much about the same Northern Latitude or very little more wherein there are divers American Nations that are not Negroes and wherein the Inhabitants of Candia some parts of Sicily and even of Spain are not so much as Tawny-Mores But which is a fresh and strong Argument against the common Opinion I find by our recent Relations of Greenland our Accounts whereof we owe to the Curiosity of that Royal Virtuoso the present King of Denmark that the Inhabitants are Olive-colour'd or rather of a Darker Hiew But if the Case were the same with Men and those other kinds of Animals I formerly nam'd I should offer something as a considerable proof That Cold may do much towards the making Men White or Black and however I shall set down the Observation as I have met with it as worthy to come into the History of Whiteness and Blackness and it is that in some parts of Russia and of Livonia it is affirm'd by Olaus Magnus and others that Hares and Foxes some add Partridges which before were Black or Red or Gray do in the depth of Winter become White by reason of the great Cold for that it should be as some conceive by Looking upon the Snow seems improbable upon divers accounts And I remember that having purposely enquir'd of a Virtuoso who lately Travell'd through Livonia to Mosca concerning the Truth of this Tradition he both told me he believ'd it and added that he saw divers of those lately nam'd Animals either in Russia or Livonia for I do not very well remember whether of the two which though White when he saw them in Winter they assur'd him had been Black or of other Colours before the Winter began and would be so again when it was over But for further satisfaction I also consulted one that had for some years been an Eminent Physician in Russia who though he rejected some other Traditions that are generally enough believ'd concerning that Countrey told me nevertheless that he saw no cause to doubt of this Tradition of Olaus Magnus as to Foxes and Hares not onely because 't is the common and uncontroul'd Assertion of the Natives but also because he himself in the Winter could never that he remember'd see Foxes and Hares of any other Colour than White And I my self having seen a small White Fox brought out of Russia into England towards the latter end of Winter foretold those that shew'd him me that he would change Colour in Summer and accordingly coming to look upon him again in July I found that the Back and Sides together with the upper part of the Head and Tayl were already grown of a Dark Colour the lower part of the Head and Belly containing as yet a Whiteness Let me add that were it not for some scruple I have I should think more than what Olaus relates confirm'd by the Judicious Olearius who was twice employ'd into those parts as a Publick Minister who in his Account of Moscovy has this Passage The Hares there are Gray but in some Provinces they grow White in the Winter And within some few Lines after It is not very Difficult to find the Cause of this Change which certainly proceeds only from the Outward Cold since I know that even in Summer Hares will change Colour if they be kept a competent time in a Cellar I say were it not for some Scruple because I take notice that in the same Page the Author Affirms that the like change of Colour that happens to Hares in some Provinces of Muscovy happens to them also in Livonia and yet immediately subjoyns that in Curland the Hares vary not their Colour in Winter though these two last named Countries be contiguous that is sever'd only by the River of Dugna For it is scarce conceivable how Cold alone should have in Countries so near so strangely differing an operation though no less strange a thing is confess'd by many that ascribe the Complexion of Negroes to the Heat of the Sun when they would have the River of Cenega so to bound the Moors that though on the North-side they are but Tawny on the other side they are Black There is another Opinion concerning the Complexion of Negroes that is not only embrac'd by many of the more Vulgar Writers but likewise by that ingenious Traveller Mr. Sandys and by a late most learned Critick besides other men of Note and these would have the Blackness of Negroes an effect of Noah's Curse ratify'd by God's upon Cham But though I think that even a Naturalist may without disparagement believe all the Miracles attested by the Holy Scriptures yet in this case to flye to a Supernatural Cause will I fear look like Shifting off the Difficulty instead of Resolving it for we enquire not the First and Universal but the Proper Immediate and Physical Cause of the

Jetty Colour of Negroes And not only we do not find expressed in the Scripture that the Curse meant by Noah Cham was the Blackness of his Posterity but we do find plainly enough there that the Curse was quite another thing namely that he should be a Servant of servants that is by an Ebraism a very Abject Servant to his Brethren which accordingly did in part come to pass when the Israelites of the posterity of Sem subdued the Canaanites that descended from Cham and kept them in great Subjection Nor is it evident that Blackness is a Curse for Navigators tell us of Black Nations who think so much otherwise of their own condition that they paint the Devil White Nor is Blackness inconsistent with Beauty which even to our European Eyes consists not so much in Colour as an Advantageous Stature a Comely Symmetry of the parts of the Body and Good Features in the Face So that I see not why Blackness should be thought such a Curse to the Negroes unless perhaps it be that being wont to go Naked in those Hot Climates the Colour of their Skin does probably according to the Doctrine above deliver'd make the Sun-beams more Scorching to them than they would prove to a people of a VVhite Complexion 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 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 Aethiopian 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 Propagated 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 consider'd 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 VVater 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 VVhite Skin was Copiously speckl'd with spots of the Colour and Bigness 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 vvas his Disease I found by enquiry of a person that vvas concern'd for him that in those places the little Tumors that had broke their passage through the Skin when they were gone they left VVhitish 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 Epiderms being remov'd the undermost Skin or Cutis appear'd just as VVhite as that of Europaean Bodyes And the like has been affirmed to me by a Physician of our own whom hearing he had Dissected 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 200. of them as well VVomen 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 he reply'd that 't was 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 In-sidels 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