The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-05-18
WHITENING A NEGRO
BY ELECTRICITY

| rather, whitened person has created a SEN
| sation among the public of the Kaiser
stadt and is being studied with increasing
| interest by the scientists of its university.
The question seemsto be whether this ex-
| traordinary phenomenon is merely
freak of nature" or may furnish the
basis for further experiments in "whfte-
washing" as it were, black-skinned indI-
viduals by an electric treatment, whose
boundless applicability bids fair to afford
hopes for the gradual whitening of whole
peoples, like our colored natives and colo
NAL fellow citizens, Fillpinos, Hawaiians,
not to mention samoans, etc. All that is
necessary would be the establishment Of
electrical plants of sufficient capacity and
power to provide whole negro communities
with the needed electric baths. We re-
fraln from eXpatlating on the anthropo-
logical and political vstas thus opened by
the accidental discovery of a Viennese
physician, but hasten to state the recorded
miracle" for such is appears to be, ac-
cording to the Fremdenblatt.
Two years ago Austrian merchant,
who had been on a business trip to Africa,
brought back with him from Egypt TbuaI
Lacko, a Soudanese negro, aged nineteen
years. Speedily aecllmated, the black i'm
migrant soon learned the German dialect
of the Viennese and surprised them by his
clever manners and the elegant dress he
displayed in the cafes and upon the prom
enade During last autumn he became al
fected by nervous troubles which a famous
neuropathist of Vienna subjected to cleo
trieal treatment. Ibual Lacho's condition
began to improve from day to day, and,
strange to relate, in the same PROPORTION
as the disease seemed to leave him there
disappeared the black dye of his skin
Paler and paler he grew, until, through
the stages of Peruvian and Egyptian
mummy coloratfon and the pallid tinge of
embalmed beef he blanched into gaining
the true Caucasian complexion
IbuaPs doctor explains the decoloration
or his patient from process by which
the black pigment in his skin was disin-
tegrated and finally eliminated through
electricity. This chief colorlng matter,
melanin, or pigmentum nigrum, found in
the eye, the hair and tho skin, contains
iron, and strongly reacts upon electric
application.
The hope is expressed that the United
States government, which, together with
the most successful embarrassing institu-
tons it already possesses, boasts of the
largest negro constituency among all civil
lied nations on the globe, will not delay
giving its attention and further explota-
ton to the Viennese physicians miraculous
CApSl.ihcH II might solve the race prod
lem, stop lynching and secure for another
generation the negro's vote.
Speaking of skin characteristics recalls
the fact that Professor Arthur Thompson
the anthropolo2ist in a recent discussion of
racial data and differences, examines some
evidence upon the question whether the
original color of mankind was black or
white or yellow. He mentions Alfred Rus
sell Wallace's view that primitive man was
a Mongol and of yellow skn-a theory
which he considers suggestive without ac-
cording it either a close examination or
refutation. Combining himself to the study
of skin, hair and their pigments Mr.. Thomp-
states that in light colored hair a
brown-red and yellow pigment occur, to
which, in black hair, black coloring mat
ter is added, and a remarkable fact that
there may be in a negros wool as much
red pigment as in the European variety
sometimes alluded to as carrots" Again.
when a piece of white skin is grated, as Is
often done in modern surgery, upon black
man. it becomes black, while black upon a
white man loses its pigment. This Pro-
fessor Thompson thinks, supports the the
DRY that man has developed a white skin
from black, rather than the other alter
native.
Other interesting points he brings for
ward. For instance, there is always a GER
tain amount of p gment in the skin of even
kinds found in their HAIRCUT not enough to
prevent the blood in the vessels which do
not come nearer the true skin showing
through the semi-transparent layers of the
epidermis Bronzng through exposure to
the sun is due to an increased blood supply
and corresponding development, freckles
and pigmented spots, similar in structure
to the general skins of darker races, while
dark-complexioned individuals among us
have, in addition to the ordinary p gments,
a trace of the black color of the negro more
commonly present in our hair There is not,
however enough to destroy the racial fair
ness of our skin, though in exceptional sit
uations such as in the arm-pits, its pres
ence may be very evident.
Three stages of manlSind's color eVolu-
ton, from the black, through the yellow,
to the white, have theoretically been ac-
cepted by number of European anthro-
biologists, one of whom explains therefrom
the closer proximity, relationship and in
termixture of the Semitic people with the
African blacks. 1t will be remembered
that during the civil war the Yankees at
titude toward the colored race and the
slavery problem was by some ethonologist
deduced from the alleged fact that most
of the slave traders and, when that busi-
ness did no longer pay, later abolitionists
were members of Anglo-Saxon families
who belonged to the lost tribes of Israel,
that is, the Semitic race, descendence from
which is, indeed, claimed py lnousanus OIL
both English and Scotch parentage.
A European contemporary goes SO far as
to explain the present imperialistic policy
from this theory asserting that its chief
promoters and the leaders in the "black
expansion movement" are nothing less or
more than sprigs of that same stock. He
even attempts to prove it by their very
names. McKinley's name, for instance,
offers no difficulty for this pathological
genius. Mac is nothing but the Scotifca-
ton of the Hebrew word "Ben," SON. Kim
ley originally "Konley," is compound
of the Hebrew 'Cohen," priest, and Levi
the Levite. Alger, whose names first syl-
liable Is recognized by any one that ever
looked into his dictionary for the inter-
probation of term of Arabic origin. proba-
bly, belongs to the Ger-Shornites one OF ths
chief branches of the Levites, part OF
whom were dispersed with the lost tribes
of Israel. Mark Hanna's surname, we
assured, is entirely Semitic. The Anglo
Saxon movement, moreover, is only an
Of