There are many reasons to induce the belief, that if properly directed,
the blacks may attain distinction in social life and progress, and a
higher degree of perfection in physical development. The skeleton of the
negro is firmer and heavier, the bones being larger and thicker than that
of any other race; but physiologists observe that the muscular development
does not correspond to the strong dimensions of the frame. This deficiency
of nature may be explained by the want of proper nutrition, or to physical
causes within human control, for all proportions in nature are harmonious.
Two of the most admirable boxers that have appeared in the British arena
were blacks, and the dark, swarthy hue of the famous wrestler, Marseilles,
reminds how common is the tinge of African blood in South France, Spain,
and Italy.
While statistics appear to exhibit the physical superiority of the blacks
in the low countries, they also prove how prone to pulmonary disease are
they when migrating to the uplands, or higher latitudes, and how fearful
the mortality. Thus Nature, it seems, offers serious barriers to their
progress, and boundaries within which they must confine themselves or
perish.