The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1911-11-03
The HUMAN SKIN.
Changes In Its Hues That Have
Come With the Ages.
COLOR A MATTER or CLIMATE.

Mans Original Shade Is Believed to
Have Been a Brownish YeIlow--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 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 tU~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 colorszQf mankind today, and
scientists call him, for the sake of
calling him something, Condwana.
He lived in southern latitudes. 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 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 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 aud less light, though about
equal heat, the color is brown and ever
yellow.
AS primitive man went ON his way
over the globe he adapted himself te
the conditions he found. Professor
Lyde thinks that it is light and moi
| heat which Is injurious. There are
In the tropics dangerous X-like rays
which must be stopped. and they were
stopped by the darkenihg 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. 1t is only In such
climates that white skins can endure
and presumably, If the present white
race was turned into different parl
Of the world for many hundreds OF
wears the whiteness Of skin would
gradually be lost Perhaps, since ths
| 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 thai
have the conditions under which thu
race was first bleached.
| Intensity Of light and little humidit!
made black. Trade winds and lttl
humidity gave the tinge Of brown 7
the subtropical Mediterranean people
Then comes yellow, which Professo
Lyde puts down as the result of was
desiccating grass lands" in intempei
ate attitudes.
The yellow man is the product 0
the grass lands, with lack of humidit
!. and seasonal extremes Of temperature
The color a man exposed to such cor
ditions would naturally fake would b
one which conserves heat nearly a
well as white, but which also protect
from light, for which combination ye
low was the best, or red. The no
} NAL color Of these folk of the gras
: lands would be changed by specif
: local conditions, such as the presenc
of mountains or proximity to the SCI
: The mountaineers of Asia and q
maritime Mongolians are lighter
color than their brothers Of the inlan
plains.
To Professor Lyde, therefore, SIX
color is entirely matter OF climat
It is a well established phenomena
now because the different portions
the human race lived segregated +
7 thousands Of years in special area
!. but the same forces that made me
= white and black and yellow are ope
! ating today, slowly, but surely. Nc
: who change their dwelling places W
! still, after hundreds Of generation
: change also their skins as they did
! the epoch of the first migrations--Ne
: York Times.
Not Consistent.