The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1911-11-10
THE HUMAN SKIN.
COLOR A MATTER OF CLIMATE.
Mans Original Shade Is Believed TO
Have Been a Brownish YelIow-The
Same Forces That Made Men White,
Black and yellow Still Operating.

Black and Yellow Still Operating.
Mans original color and the cause of
the changes In that color to the various
bnes that mark the skins Of the differ
eDt 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
f0rmity OF results must have been pro-
duced. Nearly every anthropologist is
ready to admit now a common origin
for all mankind. Whore 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
a sort of brownish yellow not like any
Of the colors of mankind today, and
scientists call him, for the sake Of
calling him something. a Condwana.
He lived I'm southern attitudes This,
they think, is certain. Then came
nigrations, and then, Professor Lyde
believes, the Variations of color began.
Some turned white, some turned black,
some brown and some yellow. all ac-
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 lie found himself in
hotter climates the increased activity
of the liver and the presence of great
light favored a 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 I'm Africa, which everybody
thinks Of as the land Of blacks, black
fs 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
Lyle thinks that It is light and not
heat which is injurious. There are
Ia 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 a tawny color, il is found that in
rainy countries the people are fairer
than IN places where there are long
and frequent droughts.
IKE race, then. that found n home in
moderate and damp climates turned
whiter and whittier. II is only in such
climates that white skins can endure,
and presumably, If the present white
race was turned into a different part
Df 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. 1t would be fair TO say 1t will,
iD 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 aud little humidity |
made black Trade winds and little |
humidity gave the tinge Of brown TO !
The subtropical Mediterranean people. |
Then comes yellow. which Professor /
Lyde puts down as the result of vast /
desiccating grass lands" In intemper- |
ate attitudes.
The yellow man is the product of |
fbe grass lands. with lack Of humidity /
Gnd seasonal extremes of temperature. |
Jhe color man exposed 10 such con-
di10ns would naturally take would be
one which conseryes heat nearly as
well as white but which also protects
from light, for which combination vel
low was the host or red The nor
mai color of these folk Of the grass
lands would be changed by special
Aogal conditions, such as the presence
81 mountains or proximity TO the sea.
The mOuntaineers of Asia and the
maritime Mongolans are lighter I'm
cal0r than their brothers OF the inland
plains.
To Professor Iyde, therefore, skin
color is entirely a matter of climate.
IL is a well established phenomenon
now because the different portions OF
the human race lived segregated for
thousands OF years in special areas.
but the same forces that made men
white and black and yellow are oper-
aing today, slowly, but surely Men
who change their dwelling places will
stin. after hundreds of generations.
change also their skins as they did In
the epoch OF the first migrations.-New
York Times.