Arizona republican., 1899-08-15
WAS ADAM A NEGRO?
Some Speculation as to the Color of
the First Man

In the first Of a series of articles up
ON anthropoiogical data which Prof.
Arthur Thompson IS writing for
Knowledge he discusses the original
color of mankind and weighs some evil
deElce bearing upon the question
whether the earliest races were black
CIR white.
At the same time he mentions Al
fred Russell Wallace's idea that prim-
tive man was d Mongol. This would
infer that our original color was yell
low, and when we consider the ciYili-
cation Of remC'5a times which existed
among the Chinese, TINT the people of
Europe sprang from Asiatic stock. and
that the identity Of the earliest cave
dwellaIs in this country and IN France
vi'-h the Eskim0s (also Mongols) has
been demonstrated. this view does not
seem so very unlikely Prof Thomp-
son cLuracterizes the theory as sugges-
tive, but gees into none Of these out
side details, combining himself to
study off skin, hair and their pigmer..s
Sorhy, he says, isolated three pig
ments, using hair as the most c0nven-
G3nt subject for experiment In light
colGred hair a brown ..ed and yellow
pigment occurs, to which in black hair
q black coloring matter is added, and
it is a remarkable fac. that there may
be in q negrO's wool as much red
pigment as in the European variety
sometimes alluded to as carrots"
Again, when a piece of white skin is
grated Cas is often done in modern
SURGERY upon q black man, it becomes
black, while black upon a white man
loses its pigment. This, Prof Thomp-
son thinks, supports the theory that
m - n hos 4 La,
q black, rather than the other alterna-
tive.
Other interesting points are brought
forward. For instance. there is al
ways q ce-Lain amount of pigment IN
the skin of even fair people. that is.
OF the led and yellow kinds found in
the hair, but not enough to prevent the
blood in the vessels which do not
come nearer the surface than the true
skin showing through the semi-trans-
parent layers of the fpidermis.
Bronzing through exposure to the
sun is due to an increased blood sup
ply and corresponding DEVELOPMENT.
treckles and pigmented spots, similar
IN structure to the general skin OF
Lnfker races, while dark complex
Toned people among us have, in addi-
tlon to '~he ordinary pigments a trace
~ ~ Oie'Sh CO4OI VI the negro. more
commonly present in our hair. There
is not, however, enough to destroy the
radical fairness of our skin, though
IN exceptional situations tsuch as i'll
the arm PITS is presence may be evil
dent
AS to the use of a black skin. Oar
win limited it might have bean devel-
oped in correlation with the immunity
from mi1l2rial diseases which darkies
enjoy, as it is true white sufferers ac-
quire a darker complexion.
In supponE Of the idea that the an
cestors of negroes and white men
mere nearly resembled the latter in
color, point not mentioned by Prof.
Thompsin might be brought forward.
and that is that pickaninnies at ,,heir
birth ara not black in col0r. but of q
dirty gray If original man were
black. just as the ogiginal lion was
spotted, we should expect to find in .she
negro infant the black color. as we
find in the young cub the traces of
spots.-London Mail