The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1898-07-20
coLoR OF NEGRO BABIES.

an rencn fhysician's Inquiry Into the Suc-
cessive Tints They Show AFTER Birth.
Several years ago DIR. 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 a good deal
of discussion at the time. One physi-
clan, DIR. 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
peachment Dr. Farabeuf made
single response, BLACK babies are
born white
Last summer there was on exhibit
tion 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,
| lIGiOo tho Prooo nbro,notic eoala %r
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 DIR. Collignon had a
chance at was the birth of a boy on
Sept. 10. The parents were coal
black.
81 arrived at the moment of
birth, says DIR. CollignOn. Arm
cd 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 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 a beautiful rosy
tinge. The hair was very fine and
abundant, not curly, and perhaps
three centimeters in length.
1.-The next day l 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 a light
tanned leather the extremities were
brick red. The baby shortly fell i'll
and was taken to the hospital
saw it again when il was 10 days
, old, and by that time its color had
deepened to chocolate.
In the second case DR.. Collignor
did not see the newborn child unit
IL hours after birth, when it wal
8 the color of chamois skin. Tht
4 third and fourth cases we're prac
I ticaIly like the first. In subsequen
cases the peculiarities of the fire
were confirmed. From all of these
data the investigator felt justified
in saying:
1.-The negro baby comes into tn
| n %a,,1ar r,ink color. fha sQQ
ond day it is lilac; 10 days after
e ward it is the color of tanned leathe
and at Is days it is chocolate. TIL
human epidermis, or outer layer o
skin, is composed of three films su
perimposed one upon the other, an
IS holding between them, in the cas-
: of the negro, the cOlOring matte
|. which makes him brown or black
d This pigment is semitiuid or in tn
form of fine granulations; in the In
p, dian it is red and in the Mongolia
: yellow. Freckles are made of thl
pigment 1t is influenced not onl
bv sun and by climate, but by Gel
st tain maladies, and the negro change
in tint just as the white perso
"a ao0s New York Sun.
French Government Methods.
r Some very peculiar methods a
practiced by the French COVER
r ment. A deputy who had borrOw'
100 francs from a colleague wro
II saying that he inclosed a bank no
o' to discharge a debt. After the le
ter was mailed, he discovered tn
he had forgotten to put the none
i'll the envelope and accordingly Ca
- ed on his friend to give him Il
amount. The creditor, however, q
serted that the bank note had be-