Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1898-08-17
COLOR OF THE NEGRO BABIES.
French Physician snys They Are Born
White and Turn Black.

Several years ago DIR. Farabeuf. pro-
fessor of histology at the Faculty of
Medicine at Paris, stated In 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 ex-
tending to many weeks; finally, that
the skin never attained its darkest tint
until the age of puberty.
This assertion caused good deal of
discussion at the time. One physician.
DR.. Florain, who had spent some years
In Africa. denied 1t emphatically. He
declared that the children of black
parents were invariabl5 Dorm black,
and that they We're as black at the age
of , months as they ever would be. To
this impeachment Dr.. Farabeuf made
single response: BLACK babies are
born white
Last summer there was on exhibition
at the Champ de Mars Soudanese
village. the colony of which numbered
several hundred persons as black as
ever born. Another Investigator, DR.,
Collignon, saw there an opportunity TO
settle the controversy. He set to work
scientifically, using the Broca chromat-
lc scale to verify his tints. This scale
Is made up of thirty-four gradations,
the gamut beginning with cream white
and ending with ebon black, the inter
vening 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 IA boy on Sept 10. The
parents were coal black.
II arrived at the moment of birth,
says DR.. Collignon. Armed with my
scale, l examined the child the instant
1t had been washed. Its skin was of n
very light pink, somewhat lighter than
the No. "A of Broca. Within very
short time the skin was sutlused with
deeper tinge. which gradually became
n delicate lilac. Certain parts of the
body were darker, but, on the other
hand, the feet and hands We're of n
beautiful rosy tinge. The hair was very
fine and abundant, not curly, and, per-
haps, three centimeters In length.
The next day | saw the child again,
and 1t was perceptibly darker; the
hands and feet were reddish. Ten
days later the main tint of the body
corresponded to No. % of the Broca
scale, which Is that of llght-tanned
leather; the eXtremities were brick-red
The baby shortly fell Ill. and was taken
to the hospital l saw 1t again when
1t was fifteen days old, and by that time
Its color had deepened to chocolate
In the second case DR.. Colllgnon did
not see the newborn child until twelve
hours after birth, when 1t was the color
of chamois skin. The third and fourth
cases were practically like the first.
In subsequent cases the peculiarities
of the first were confirmed; from all
of which data the investigator felt JUS
titled in saying:
1.-The negro baby comes into the world
tender pink color; the second day 1t is
lilac; ten days afterward it is the color OF
tanned leather. and at fifteen days it Is
chocolate The human epidermis, or
outer layer of skin, Is composed of three
films superimposed one upon the other,
and holding between them, in the case
of the negro, the coloring matter which
makes him brown or black. This pig
ment Is semi-fuid or in the form of fine
granulations; in the Indian ii is red,
and In the Mongolan yellow. Freckles
are made of this pigment.-Chicago
Inter Ocean.