New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1911-09-06
THE HUMAN SKIN.
Changes In It's Hues That Have
Come With the Ages.
COLOR A MATTER OF CLIMATE.

MANS Ort0lnaj 0hooO 70 9OUOvO0 20
Have Been 8rownish Yellow-Ths
Same Forces That Made Men White.
Black and yellow Still Operating.
Mans original color ard the cause Of
the changes in that color to the various
hues that mark the skins Of the differ
ent races have long been study
among men of science.
The theory of Professor Lionel Lyde,
an English scientist, is that, whatever
the color of primitive man in the be-
ginning, the conditions of life during
the glacial period were such that uni
formity of results must have been pro-
duced Nearly every anthropologist is
ready to admit now common origin
for all mankind. Where man Origi-
mated Is not known-very likely In
southern Asia, possibly in Africa, GER
tainly not in Europe, they say. His
original color is supposed to have been
sort Of brownish yellow not like any
of the colors Of mankind today, and
scientists call him, for the sake of
calling him something, Condwana.
He lived in southern ATTITUDES. This.
they think, is certain. Then came
migrations. and then, Professor Lyde
believes, the variations of color began.
Some turned white, some turned black,
some brown and some yellow, all &C.
cording to the climate in which they
found themselves.
Climate influences worked directly
and indirectly. In the tropics the skin
and the intestines perform work which
in temperate zones is thrown on the
lungs. So when man found himself In
cooler lands the increased activity Of
the lungs, together with the lessened
light and heat, favored tightening Of
the skin. When he found himself in
hotter climates the increased activity
Of the liver and the presence Of great
light favored dark skin.
The old theories Of race are pretty
well discarded, for men Of the same
race, under differing conditions, would
come to be outwardly very different.
Thus even in Africa, which everybody
thinks Of as the land Of blacks, black
Is not at all the universal color. In
the Sudan, where there are great light
and little humidity and no shade, the
men are very black. Elsewhere in
Africa, where there are forest, more
humidity and less light, though about
equal heat, the color is brown and even
yellow.
As primitive man went on his way
over the globe he adapted himself to
the conditions he found. Professor
Lyde thinks that It Il light and not
heat which is injurious There are
in the tropics dangerous X-like rays
which must be stopped, and they were
stopped by the darkening Of the skin.
Since lack Of moisture also tends to
give tawny color, it is found that in
rainy countries the people are fairer
than in places where there are long
and frequent droughts.
The race, then, that found home in
moderate and damp climates turned
whittier and whittier. It is only In such
that white skins can endure,
and presumably, If the present white
race was turned into different part
Of the world for many hundreds of
years, the whiteness Of skin would
gradually be lost. Perhaps, since the
white man is spreading over the world
to-day, it would be fair to say it will,
In such cases, be lost, the whiteness
being retained only in climates that
have the conditions under which the
race was first bleached.
Intensity of light and little humidity
made black. Trade winds and little
humidity gave the tinge Of brown to |
he subtropical Mediterranean people
Then comes yellow, which Professor |
Lyde puts down as the result of "vast
grass lands" in intemper-
tie ATTITUDES.
The yellow man is the product of
he grass lands, with lack of humidity
md seasonal extremes of temperature.
The color man exposed to such con-
litions would naturally take would be
me which conserves heat nearly as
veil as white, but which also protects
|
ow was the best, or red. The nor
nal color of these folk of the grass
ands would be changed by special
ocal conditions, such as the presence
t mountains or proximity to the sea.
The mountaineers of Asia and the
maritime Mongolians are lighter in
olor than their brothers Of the inland
lains.
To Professor Lyde, therefore, skin
olor is entirely matter of climate.
is well established phenomenon
ow because the different portions of
he human race lived segregated for
thousands of years in special areas,
ut the same forces that made men
7hite and black and yellow are oper-
ting today, slowly, but surely. Men I
Tho change their dwelling places will
ILL, after hundreds of generations,
hange also their skins as they did in