The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-06-28
|M.E.TracySays:

TNHEY have brought Negro up from Haiti
Il to be examined by American scientists. His
skin is said to have turned white after he ate
a certain kind of nut He ate the nut to cure
persistent case of asthma.
1t is described as an "old family remedy" to
which he resorted after a long and futile expert
ence with modern curatives. If this is So many
OF his ancestors must have tried it. Why didn't
their skins turn white?
The nut is variously named "oury' or
quarry in newspaper reports of the case. I
have been unable to find out anything about it
under that name in such reference books as the
Century dictionary Encyclopedia BRITANNICA, or
BayleS Cyclopedia of American Horticulture This
is not surprising. Miracles are not produced by
Well-known nuts
Be that as it may, Ysneond Dauphin comes
to us not only asserting that, though white to-
day, he lived as black man for So years. but
With documents to prove it. He says that the
weird transformation came about after five
day whirl with curry nuts, that they made him
very Ill, even causing partial loss of sight that
when he recovered he not only found himself
rid of asthma, but a white man.
lie says that this was apparently due to a
shedding of the skin, which occurred some time
after he ate the nuts.
HAITIAN medical authorities have looked
l. 4 up the case and are satisfied with it's
authenticity They do not pretend to know,
however, whether the result should be attributed
to the nuts or to some constitutional popularity
of Dauphin.
Cases of skin shedding have been reported
by physicians but this is the first one on record
in which Negro turned white
In 1881, Dr. Preston of Canterbury New Zea-
land, told OF woman who shed her skin every
two weeks from the age of T. She was 81 years
old at the time. Her skin would come off in
large separate sections; sometimes in an I'M
broken piece like glove, or a stocking.
Ten years later, Dr. Frank reported some
what similar in which the skin had been
shed on July "a each year for thirty three years.
In volume 40 Of the Philosophical Transactions"
is recorded the case of a miller. IS years DID,
who was subject to periodic skin shedding. When
exposed to cold, he would be attacked by fever
with pains in the head, back and limbs. furred
tongue great thirst, etc.
Then the whole surface of his body would
become yellow, growing horid later on. For
several days he would be nervous with inter-
mitten periods of numbness and tingling. About
the third week after the attack began the
skin would begin to raise in spots as though by
blisters and peel off. Gradually he would re-
cover and go back to work
MO doubt all such anomalies have a definite
IN meaning if we only could discover it.
While some of them obviously are due to ex-
ceptional conditions, others have no apparent
cause, except constitutional eccentricity.
just what constitutional eccentricity we do
not know. 1t may have profound bearing on
the mere obscure processes of evolution. At any
rate, it is worth studying
Meanwhile we must not forget that an ano-
maly or miracle can be fate, and that science
constantly is confronted with the task of dis
covering whether a case is genuine before it
gets too excited over the cause.