Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1898-08-11
COLOR OF NEGRO BABIES.
French Physician's Inquiry Into the Sue
cessiye Tints They Show After Birth


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 a 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 good deal
of discussion at the time. One physi.
clan, DR.. Florain, who had spent
some years in Africa, denied it en-
phatically. He declared that the
children OF black parents were in
variably born black and that they
were as black at the age of months
as they ever would be. To this i'm
parchment DR.. Farabeuf made
single response, ''Black babies are
born white -
Last summer there was on exhibit
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
an opportunity to settle the contro-
versy. He set to work scientifically,
using the Broca chromatic 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 cup of black coffee. The
first case that DR.. Collignon had
chance at was the birth of boy on
Sept. 10. The parents were coal
black.
II 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 a very light
pink, somewhat lighter than the
No. "a of Broca. Within 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.
''The next day I 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 correspondent 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 Is 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
IL 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:
'The negro baby comes into the
world tender pink color; the Sec
ond day it is lilac; 10 days after
ward it is the color 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 semitiuid or in the
form of fine granulations; in the In.
dian it is red and in the Mongoliar
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.
Her Ladyship's Deadly Jest.
The count and the countess were