VALUE OF DARK SKIN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 290, 7 December 1928, Page 3

VALUE OF DARK SKIN

COMPLEXION AND DISEASE The relative immunity from tuberculosis of the dark and sallow-skinned Jewish races compared with the blonde people of Northern Europe was discussed at the annua] congress of the National Veterinary Medical Association at Newcastle-on-Tyne. Dealing with some of the unsolved problems of disease resistance among certain species of men and animals, Mr W. C. Miller, of Edinburgh, said here was authority for the statement that certain races of cattle possessed of a light-coloured coat and hide contracted tuberculosis more easily than those with dark coats when they were put together in infected places. “This contention is in acord with the statement of other authorities who have been compiling statistics of tuberculosis in the human race,’’ said Mr Miller. “It has been stated that the blonde individual possessed of auburn, silky hair, and pale, freckled skin of fine texture, shows a much greater degree of susceptibility to infection with tuberculosis than those of the Jewish race. In the United States or the more populous parts of Europe statistics which have been compiled tend to show that the mortality from tuberculosis per thousand Jews is 37, whereas the total mortality from tuberculosis per thousand Jews is 37. whereas the total mortality from tuberculosis per thousand of the whole of the American population is 138. It would, therefore, appear that if these figures can be relied npon the Jews are possessed of a certain degree of resistance to tuberculosis when compared with blonde races.” Emphasising the yet unsolved mystery which surrounds the problem of disease resistance, Mr Miller said that while granting that differences in enrironment previous to contact with disease of exposure to it wore responsible for much of the great variation in the animals or breed which became attacked, there yet remained to be explained why certain individuals escaped, even though exposed to equal chance of infection. Instances of this lingular resistance to disease had been found among dairy cows, where the animal was left continuously with pne in an advanced stage of the disease. In such cases one would imagine that the animal had had every possible opportunity of becoming infected, and yet it had escaped. Individual animals ■ad been encountered during the course >f experimental work which proved the'r resistcncc even to artificial Diet hods of infection. J’rofesor F. A E. Crew, of the Animal Breeding Research Department of Edinburgh University, said that if natural disease resistance did really exist it might be a sounder policy in certain cases to breed resistant stock rather than to prevent and cure disuse by other means. It was far easier for the resistant to disregard disease than for the susceptible to vanquish it. [t was time that experts combined to attack the problem of resistance to disease.