DARK AND LIGHT SKINS
(To the Editor of the Herald.) Sir, — I' notice that some discussion has arisen over the asserted liability of Maori children to skin diseases. It appeared to me at the time that the first assertion was made — the assertion that Maori children were subject to skin diseases in- a -. greater degree than are white children — that the person who said' so offered no proof of his statement, which could only be made on scientific observation. L have not yet seen much of Maori children, haying Tesided for so short a time in New Zealand: What I have seen disposes me to believe that they ar© less liable to skin diseases than are white children. I Qiave travelled much and' seen many people with dark skins., from the lightest brown to the polished "stove-pipe" black, and so far as I have observed the skin is 1 a strong point of health in. the dark races. Tlie Nubians, for instance, who are the finest men I have ever seen, have most wonderfully soft and healthy skins, and never have skin diseases, whereas the lighter-colored races, are, in my opinion, as a traveller and 1 a medical man, infinitely more subject to skin diseases, parasitic and otherwise. The Maori children run more risk of catching skin j diseases from the whites than vice versa, I I think. — I am, etc.. I GERARD SMITH.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/PBH19080901.2.66.1
Bibliographic details
Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11370, 1 September 1908, Page 6
Word Count
234DARK AND LIGHT SKINS Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11370, 1 September 1908, Page 6
Using This Item
The Gisborne Herald Company is the copyright owner for the Poverty Bay Herald. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Gisborne Herald Company. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.