Morris tribune., 1898-05-25
COLOR OF NEGRO BABIES.
A French Physician's Inquiry into the Suc
cessive Tints They Show After Birth.

A French Physicians Inquiry Into the Sue.
cessive Tints They Show After Birth.
Several years ago DR.. Farabeuf,
professor Of histology at the Faculty
Of Medicine, stated in public lee.
ture that negro babies at the time
Of birth were of exactly the same
color as white babies, and that they
showed signs of color only after an
interval, usually Of several days,
but often extending to many weeks;
finally, that the skin never attained
its darkest tint until the age of pu.
berty.
This assertion caused a good deal
of discussion at the time. One physi.
clan, DR.. Florain, who had spent
some years in Africa, denied it en-
phatioally. He declared that the
children of black parents were in
variably born black and that they
were as black at the age of 2 months
as they ever would be. To this i'm
parchment DR.. Farabeuf made a
single response, BLACK babies ere
born white. -
Last summer there was on exhibi-
ton at the Champ de Mars a Su-
danese village, the colony of which
numbered several hundred persons
| as black as ever born. Another in
vestigator, DR.. Collignon, saw there
IN opportunity to settle the contro-
| versy. He set to work scientifically,
using the Broca chromatio scale to
| verify his tints. This scale is made
up of "a gradations, the gamut be-
| ginning with cream white and end
ing with ebon black, the intervening
| shades giving all the grades that
one could obtain, say, By pouring
milk into a cup of black coffee. The
first case that DR.. Collignon had a
chance at was the birth Of boy on
Sept. 19. The parents were coal
black.
u arrived at the moment of
| BIRTH, says DR.. Collignon. Arm
ed with my scale, l examined the
child the instant it had been wash
ed. Its skin was of very light
pink, somewhat lighter than the
No. "a of Broca. Within a very
short time the skin was suffused
with deeper tinge, which gradual
| ly became delicate lilac. Certain
parts of the body were darker; but,
on the other hand, the feet and
hands were of beautiful rosy
tinge. The hair was very: fine and
abundant, not curly, and perhaps
three centimeters in length. =
1.-THE next day / saw the child
again, and it was perceptibly dark
er; the hands and feet were reddish.
Ten days later the main tint of the
body corresponded to No. 20 of the
Broca scale, which is that of light
tanned leather; the extremities were
brick red. The baby shortly fell i'll
and was taken to the hospital. /
saw it again when it was 15 days
old, and by that time its color had
deepened to chocolate.
In the second case DR.. Collignon
did not see the newborn child until
10 hours after birth, when it was
the color of chamois skin. The
third and fourth cases were prac-
tically like the first. In subsequent
cases the peculiarities of the first
were confirmed. From all Of these
data the investigator felt justified
in saying:
1.-THE negro baby comes into the
world a tender pink color; the Sec
ond day it is lilac;. 10 days after
| ward it is thecolor Of tanned leather
and at Is days it is chocolate. The
human epidermis, or outer layer Of
| skin, is composed of three films SUI
perimposed one upon the other, and
holding between them, in the case
of the negro, the coloring matter
which. makes him brown or black.
This pigment is semifluid or in the
form Of fine granulations; in the In
dian it is red and in the Mongolian
yellow. Freckles are made Of this
pigment. 1t is Influenced not only
by sun and by climate, but by GER
tain maladies, and the negro changes
in tint just as the white person
does. New York Sun.