MEN OFMANY COLOURS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1994, 12 May 1892, Page 40

MEN OFMANY COLOURS.

The dark colour which is characteristic of race has nothing to do with climatic influences. The colour.of tbe skin of the American native is pretty much the same, whether he comes from the cold highlands of Canada, from the tropical swamps of Central America, or from the dense forests of Brazil. In Northern Africa we find tbe fair-skinned Kabyle and the swarthy Bedawin Jiving side by side in precisely tbe same manner and under the saroe conditions of climate and food. For the last 6000 years or more Egyptians and Nubians have dwelt in the same valley of the Nile; except where be has intermarried with his darker neighbour the Egyptian still remains a member of the white race, while the skin of the Nubian is almost as black as that of the negro.

The dark colour of the black races is due to a pigment which is spread over tbe true t kin immediately beneath the epidermis, or scarfskin. Indeed, in the case of the negro at all events; "ifc is found even in the muscles and brain. The pigment mainly con&ists of carbon excreted by the lungs in the form of carbonic oxide, and deposited from the capillaries upon the skin and membranes. Decreased aotion.of tbe Jungs accordingly implies an increased deposit of colouring matter.

It is probable that a dark skin was characteristic of primitive man. We can explain how the black pigment could have been lost; it is mere difficult to explain how it. could have been acquired. In an Arctic climate'animals tend to become what has been called " permanently albinoised." . . . . It would appear probable that it was in Europe, during tbe long period covered by the close of the glacial epoch, that the characteristics of the white race stereotyped themselves.—" Rudimentary Ethnology," by A. H. Sayce, LL.D.