The Press., 1911-11-01
THE HUMAN SKIN.
Changes In Its Hues That Have
 Come With the Ages.
COLOR A MATTER OF CLIMATE.

Have Been a Brownish YeIIow-The
 Same Forces That Made Men White Black and Yellow Still Operating.
 Mans original color and the cause of
 the changes in that color to the various
 hues that mark the skins of the differ
 ent races have long been a 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. cer 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 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 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 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 1t is 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 a tawny color. 1t 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 a home in moderate and damp climates turned whiter and whiter It is only in such climates that white skins can endure. and presumably. If the present white race was turned into a 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, 1t would be fair to say 1t 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 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 the grass lands. with lack of humidity and seasonal extremes of temperature The color man exposed to such con ditions would naturally take would be one which conserves heat nearly as well as white. but which also protects from light. for which combination vel low was the best, or red. The nor nal color of these folk of the grass lands would be changed by special local conditions, such as the presence of mountains or proximity to the sea. The mountaineers of Asia and the maritime MongoIians are lighter in color than their brothers of the inland plains. s.. .s...
 To Professor Lyde, therefore. skin color is entirely a matter of climate It 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 ating today. slowly. but surely. Men who change their dwelling places will still. after hundreds of generations. change also their skins as they did in the epoch of the first migrations.-New York Times.