The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-12-03
SCIENTISTS ATTEMPT TO
FIND REASONS FOR =
. THE NEGROES COLOR.

i The NEGROES COLOR
London Morning Post: One Of the
oedlocks of controversy is the inherit
lance of acquired characters. An ac-
CURED character, such as a broker Les,
VIII evidently not be transmitted TO.
offspring, but 1t requires a logical mind,
and a considerable acquaintance with,
biology to be convinced that disease Is
not hereditary. In the course Of the
many controversies which ave arisen
on n subject, skin color Is sometimes
cited as an acquired characteristic
which Is transmitted.
The line of reasoning runs in this
way: Brunette and mulatto skins r
apparently Identical from a structural
or historical point Of view; the only
difference between them is in the num-
Der of pigment granules. Moreover,
under protracted exposure to sun and
extremes Of heat a white skin acquires
a number Of pigmet granules, and be-
comes burnt to darkness. Consequent
~, as the negro originally halls from
tropical regions, it is to be supposed
that the fermentation in his skin haa
arisen as a responsive demand against
the avs Of the sun, just as whites ao-
quire tan. Here. then, is an acquired
characteristic which has been trans
mitted; moreover, according to some
theorists, this color characteristic
shows it's acquired character by q
tendency to fade.
Prof. H. e. Jordan offers two de-
murrers to this argument. In the first
place there is no proof that continued
residence in a tropic cline would in
the course of a considerable number OF
generations convert a fair-skinned
race into a dark one. The little EVIL
dence we have is in the contrary direc-
ton. The inhabitants Of Saba in the
West Indies which was coloniZed by
the Dutch retained, according. to the
Bishop Of Antigua, the same clear
white and red complexion which their
ancestors brought from Holland 200
years before" 1t seems, therefore,
that there may be some other 4
PLANTATION of the negroid skin than that
1t Is the Swallowed livery Of the bur-
nished sun" -a.-
Professor Jordan suggests that it u
an inheritance from anthropoid noes
tors. In the first place the negro is q
primitive type Of man as indicated by
numerous anatomical marks which r
more or less infantiIe. He apparently
stands much nearer than the European
races the anthropoid apes with pig"
mented faces. The negro may, there
fore, have inherited his dark skin from
his augmented Freeman ~ancestors.[ He
may be habitually an inhabitent of the
tropics, Of because he alone could sur
vive in that climate, or because he was
best suited there. In short, his skin
is not the direct response to the clim-
ate. but is a much TOT remote
characteristic of the branch of the
apes from which negroid man spT8ng.
The d~ark-sktnned races, like the Ttal-
ians and Spanish, and, finally, the
brunettes Of the Ango-Saxon race, may
none the less W their ~pigmentatfon
to an intermingling Of negroid ances-
try. The connecting link may well
have been the negro slaves of Roman
times and the conquertng TeutOnR-
In this connection some experiments
made in the Philippines ON the effect
OF sunlight on men and animals and On
their skin may be quoted First with
regard to monkeys. These, If placed in
full sunlight, died in from to two.
hours, though n would naturally
have expected that as they are at
home in the tropics, they would be
we'll able to withstand the effects of
the suns heat and light The ex-
PLANTATION lies in the fact that the
system of sweat glands in monkeys in
not so highly organized az in man,
and THEN physical heat regulation Is
to a much greater extent brought about
by water evaporated from the lungs
duQ ulOuLn NaS IN INC CASS OIL p%An6hS
dogs) through increased respiration.
When the animals were shaded, even
by an umbrella or a board, the case
was quite different. The skin teKnpsra-
lures remained at 1O4 degrees FalFen-
heit and the animals remained healthy.
If any means were taken to convey the
heat away by a fan or by exposing :
only part of the animal the monkeys
did not suffer.
UN--A-f-za- $500 m
interesting. Man has a highly de-
veloped system Of sweat glands, 90
that the means Of heat regulation by
evaporation are much more complete
than in monkeys. dogs or rabbfta- In q
hot climate like that Of the Philippines
a mans skin temperature varies from
S8 degrees Farenheit to 81 degrees
Fahrenheit in the shade. 1t Is hotter
over the fatty and muscular areas than
over that where the bone Is near the
skin. Put the man in the sun and his
skin temperature will rise In a quarter
of an hour to 80 degrees ON b cheek
and nearly LOT degrees on the chest;
slightly lower temperatures obtain on
his shady side; his scalp rises TO ia
degrees. The Filipino natives does mot
acquire 81 high a temperature az tho
American. But a much longer exposure
does not cause any further rise in
temperature. On the contrary the
temperature falls. The brown man
has here a slight pull yer the white
A remarkable fact observed was
that a negro had acquired skin tenn
perature under the same conditions
higher than either brown or white
men; and though he cooled also, did
not cool quite so well or 81 far. The
negro in some senses and I'm some
cases actually suffers o from heat
than the whffe man PAM G. TreaRsa
conclusion from these observations
was that the dark skin of the negro
was not the result of excessive sun
light, for 1t was certain that In q
state of nature he would seek the
shade as monkeys do. and in the earli-
est times was probably q forest
dweller.