The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-09-08
GOING BACK ON HER COLOR.
Strange Case of a Negro woman
Who Is Turning White.

Who Is turning WulIe-
One of the most peculiar cases on record
among the Savannah physicians Is that OF
| a negro woman who is turning white. DIR.
SheftalI has the case. The wOmau's name
| is Rachael DeWillis. She lives in Yama-
craw. Her face and neck have peeled and
her skin is as white as that of Caucasian
Her entire body is unde going the same
! change. and if it continues she Will soon
| have passed from the African to the eau
casian race, so far as color IS concernedf
Dr. Sheftali was ca led in to treat the
woman about three weeks ago and she was
then just beginning to undergo the chings.
| Her arms aud neck were very dark. but her
face was becoming white. The skin dropped
off in small flakes and the woman's body
was spotted at one time This gave way,
! however to a white skin which she has
retained The woman's health has been
poor ever since she began to turn white.
| Her skin has been as tight as 1t was posslsle
| for it TO be- Her fingers are perfectly
paralyZed, and up to a short time ago she
was unable to raise her arms. Sheis grow
ing much better of late, however, and it IS
| thought that she viii entirely recover.
VIII she be white theni Tnat is ques
ton that everybody who has heard OF the
case Is asking. The case has attracted wide
attention in the western part of the city,
and thousands of people, and especially
colored people, 60 to see the woman. Such
a case has never been reported In Savannah
before, DR.. Sheftall says.
MORNING News reporter saw the
woman yesterday. Sue is most
pitiable looking object. She was sitting up
in bed, grooming and complaining of the
severe pains and aches ia her body. Her
hair was gray. Her face and neck were
white and her black arms and hands lay
folded on her lap. 1t was strange con-
trast When asked about her condition and
the change she is undergoing, she looked
up with a troubled expression
and replied that she was dying. Il don't
think is got much longer to stay" she said.
She said that she began TO experience a
numb sensation in her fingers and arms
about year ago. 1t grew worse, and
although it was in midsummer, she had to
hold her hands over a lamp when she first
got up in the morning before she could get
the use of them.
She did this for several months, but the
warmth Of the lamp to her hands began to
be less effective. After awhile she lost the
use of her fingers altogether. She began
then to grow very dark, and in few
weeks she was nearly black. Then sue
began to fill up, and in fe y weeks she had
gown nearly twice her natural size.
With this swelling came inactivity. Pains
SelZed ner, ana Stie SalQ JnaU sue was n
agony all the time. This last development
was superseded by falling off in size. Her
flesh, she sa id, seemed to shrink and her
skin seemed as if it were growing to her
bones. 1t remained, nevertheless, very
tight-painfully so. She said that
it seemed as if the flesh
were being absorbed. Her fingers and arms
were drawn up as If she had been burned
and her hair turned gray. 1t was after she
began to be reduced in flesh that the black
skin began to peel off, leaving white skin.
The woman is AZ years old. She is a
widow. She was born in Macon,
but came to Savannah when a child. She
sad that she has a niece living in Macon
who turned perfectly white a few years
ago. she suffered the pains that the
DeWillis woman is suffering now.
The woman said that her husband
died some years ago. She has had
but one child and it died many years ago.
While acknowledging that she Is consider
ably better than she was some time ago, she
fairly believes That she is going to die. She
is rather an intelligent woman, and when
she does not suffer, as she says, she con-
vers IS very well. A popularity about the
woman, and feature that adds to her
ghastliness, is a rank beard on her chin.
Like her hair, her beard is beginning to be
srreaked with gray