The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1899-04-01


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
hut 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-
phatically. 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 DIR. Farabeuf made a
single response, "Black babies are
born white. 7
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
an 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 34 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 DIR. 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 DIR. 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 a very
short time the skin was suffused
with deeper tinge. which gradual
~ 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 | 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 it was Is 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
II 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
we're confirmed. From.all of these
lata the investigator felt justified
n saying:
1.-THE negro baby comes into the
world tender pink color; the sec
md day it is lilac; 10 days after
ward 1t is the color of tanned leather
ind at Is days it is chocolate. The
human epidermis, or outer layer of
kin, is composed of three films su-
,erimposed one upon the other, and
lolding between them, in the case
# the negro, the coloring matter
which makes him brown or black.
This pigment is semifuid or in the
orm of fine granulations; in the In
liam it is red and in the Mongolian
'ellow. Freckles are made of this
pigment. 1t is influenced not only
" sun and by climate, but by GER
ain maladies, and the negro changes
n tint just as the white person !
oes. New York Srln ,