The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-02-06
COLOR OF NEGRO BABIES.
A French Physician's inquiry Into the Success
sive Tinis They SHOW AFTER Birth.

sire Tints They show After Birth.
PARIS, Jan. 22.-Several years ago DR.. Fara-
beuf. professor of histology at the Faculty of
Medicine. stated In q public lecture 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 at
tanned its darkest tint until tho age OF puberty.
This assertion CAUSED a good deal OF discussion
ut the time. One physician. DR.. Florain, who
had spent some years in Africa. denied 1t en-
phatically. He declared that the children of
black parents wero invariably born black. and
that they wero ms black at the age of two months
as they ever would be. To this impeachment
DIR. Farabeuf made q single response: BLACK
babies are born white"
Last summer there was on exhibition at the
Champ dc Mars a Soudaneso village, tho Colony
of which numbered several hundred persons as
black as ever born. Another investigator, DIR.
Collignvn, saw there an opportunity to settle the
controversy. Ho set to work scientifically. using
the BrocaS chromatic scale to verify his tints.
This scale is made up Of thirty-four gradations.
tho Ramut beginning with cream white and
ending with ebon black, the intervening shades
giving all the grades that one could obtain, say.
first case that DE-. Coilignon had a chance at
was the birth OF u boy on sept. 10. The parents
were coal black.
" arrived at the moment of birth" SAYS DIR.
Coliignon. Armed with my scale. ! examined
the child the instant IT, had been washed. Its
s shan w Ehe q No a. y KEY of I Brosd p'n wi sG%s% " VERY ,is shoPf
time the skin was suffused with a deeper tinge.
which gradually became q delicate lilac. Ger.
tain parts OF the body were darker, but, on the
other hand. the feet and hands were OF q beautiful
rosy tinRe. The hair WAS very fine and album
dant, not curly. nnd. perhaps. three centimetl es
In length. :,
was pcrccntibly darker; the hands and feet were
body correspondent 10 No. 20 OF the Broca scale,
which ID that Of II light.tanned. leather; the ex-
tremitics were brick.red. The baby shortly fell
III, and was taken TO the hospital. saw 1t
again when it WAS fifteen days old, and by that
time its color had deepened to chocolate"
In the second case DIR. CollignOn did not see
the newborn child until twelve hours after
birth. when IL was the color OF chamois skin.
The third and fourth cases we're practically like
uf the first were contirmed: from all OF which
dataNhc Investigator felt justified In saying:
The negro baby comes into the world u ten
der pink color; the second day IL Is lilac ten
days afterward IL IL the color OF tanned leather,
and at hfteOn days IL l. chocolate. The hu-
man epidormis, or outer layer of skin, 10 con.
posed OF three films s~uperimposed one uponthe
other, and holding between them, In the case of
the negro, the c~oloring matter which makes him
IN the form OF fine granulatlons IN the Indian II
Is red, and in tho MongOlian yellow. Freckles
are made OF this pigment. IL Is Influenced not
only by sun and by climate, but by certain
maladies. and the negro changes In tint just as
the white person does"