The Descent of Man

from diseases of tropical countries than persons
with dark hair and sallow complexions; and, so
far as I know, there appear to be good grounds
for this remark." On the other hand, Mr. Heddle,
of Sierra Leone, "who has had more clerks
killed under him than any other man," by the
climate of the West African Coast (W. Reade,
'African Sketch Book,' vol. ii. p. 522), holds a
directly opposite view, as does Capt. Burton.)
As far, therefore, as these slight indications go,
there seems no foundation for the hypothesis,
that blackness has resulted from the darker and
darker individuals having survived better during
long exposure to fever-generating miasma.
Dr. Sharpe remarks (63. 'Man a Special Creation,'
1873, p. 119.), that a tropical sun, which
burns and blisters a white skin, does not injure
a black one at all; and, as he adds, this is not
due to habit in the individual, for children only
six or eight months old are often carried about
naked, and are not affected. I have been assu-