Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1899-07-26
WAS ADAM A NEGRO?
Curiosities Of Human CoIorinE-COIor
OF the Original Nun by an
English Scientist

LII the HrSt OF a series of articles
upon anthropological data Prof. Ar
:hur Thompson discusses the original
:olor of mankind and weighs some cvi-
Ience bearing upon the question
whether the earliest races were black
or white.
At the same time he mentions Alfred
Russell Nallace's idea that primitive
man was Al Mongol. This would infer
that our. original color was yellow, and
when we consider the civilization of
:emote times which existed among the
Chinese, that the people of Europe
Sprang from hsiatic stock, and that
the identity of the earliest cave dwell
ers in this country and in France with
the Eskimos (also Mongols) has been
demonstrated, this view does not seem
so very unlikely. Prof. Thompson char
acterizes the theory rs sugC.ativc, Eut
goes into none of these outside details
confining himself to study of skin
hair, and their pigments.
Sorby, he says, isolated three pig
1nents, using hair as the more con
venient subject for experiment. I.
hght-colored hair brown red ard Il vel
low pigment occur, to which in Lack
hair black coloring matter is added,
and it is remarka BILE fact that there
may be in n negro's wool us much
red pigment as in the European variety
sometimes alluded to as "carrata."
Again, when piece Of VIII: Vim is
grated, as is often done in 1r", .Stir-
gerry, upon Il black man. il ,ic,ucS
black, while black upon a w:r.:c !,am
loses its pigment. This, Prof. Ih"Irr-
son thinks, supports the theory that
man has developed white skin from 81
black, rather than the other aItcrna-
tive.
Other interesting points are brought
forward. For instance, there is cIvays
a certain amount of pigmer' III III"
skin OF even fair people, Tat *. Of i!ic
rcd and yellow kinds found ;n tilc;r
hair. but not enough to prevent The
blood in the vessels which do nc: cc!n"
nearer the surface than the true Skin
showing through the se1ni-transparcnt
layers Of the cpidermis.
N"0n"ing through exposure to the
.'::n is due to an Increased blood surD!,.
md n corresponding develcr-1crt
rockies, and pigmented spots, #. rilar
i'll structure to the general skins G.:
;'H"licr races, while darkroom DlcHionct,
people among us have, in addition IN
tie ordinary pigments, a trace OF
The black color of the negro, mere COM
monty present in our hair. There is
not, however, enough to destroy the
racial fairness of our skin, though in
exceptional situations (such as in the
arm pits) it's presence may be very evil
dent.
AS to the use of black skin, Darwin
limited that it might have been devel-
oped in correlation with the immunity
from malarial diseases which 'darkies"
enjoy, as ii is true that white sufferers
acquire a darker complexion.
In support of the idea thatthe an
cestors of negros and white men more
nearly resemblcd the latter in color,
point not mentioned by Prof. Thomp-
son might be brought forward, and that
is that "pickaninnies" at their birth
are not black in color, but Ola dirty
gray. If original man were black, just
IS the original lion was spotted. we
should expect to find in the negro in
fant the black color, as we find in the
young cub the traces of spots.--Lon-
don Mail.