Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/194

 190 COMPLEXION" as forming a specific distinction, marking the European and negro as belonging to separate species ; an opinion which, if the fact were true, would not admit of question, for, as Prichard remarks, the endowment of an entirely pecu- liar organ to one race of which no traces are to be found in the proximate tribe, is a much greater difference than is often to be found on comparing species which stand next to each other in the zoological series. There are many facts, however, which do not admit of explana- tion upon Flourens's theory. Among these are the discolorations which take place in the skin of European races, in certain disordered states of the constitution. During pregnancy many females have a dark tinge around the nipples, varying in intensity in different cases, and in some the entire abdomen is covered with a hue as dark as that of the negro. Bo- mare mentions a French peasant woman whose abdomen became completely black during each pregnancy. Camper gives an account of a fe- male of rank who had naturally a white skin and beautiful complexion, which whenever she became pregnant began to grow brown. " Toward the end of pregnancy," he says, "she became in color a veritable negress." After delivery the dark color gradually disappeared. Dr. Starck mentions a man who after an at- tack of intermittent fever became as black as a negro. Blumenbach possessed a part of the skin taken from the abdomen of a beggar, which was as black as that of an African. El- liotson relates the case of a girl in St. Thomas's hospital, whose family were all white, but whose left shoulder, arm, and hand were of negro blackness, except that a stripe of white ran between the elbow and armpit ; also that of a white woman who in 20 years became as black as a negress without any evident reason. A case is related in the Journal General, where a woman became suddenly black from mental distress, and remained so. The blackness in this case was not caused by jaundice or con- gestion of blood, but by a change in the color- ing matter of the rete mucosum. The " Trans- actions of the Medical Society of the State of New York " for 1858 contain a case of a change of color in the person of a female aged 16 years, reported by Dr. W. H. Gardiner. When the patient was first seen by Dr. Gardiner, Sept. 15, 1857, the discoloration of the skin had ex- isted for about two years, and she presented in color the appearance of a dark mulatto with distinctly marked European features. Her father was of English, and her mother of American birth ; both had light complexions, with light eyes and brown hair. All their children resembled them in complexion except the patient of Dr. Gardiner, who possessed the same complexion as her brothers and sisters until she had attained her 14th year. Soon after puberty some dark brown spots were observed upon her forehead, which looked at a little distance as if covered with fine dust. These spots were not constant, nor did they at- tract much attention until they had been pres- ent about two years. At the age of 16, after an attack of slight illness, her complexion grew rapidly darker, and in about two months had acquired the deep hue which it afterward bore. At this period she presented, when at a short distance, the appearance of a white person whose skin had been covered with a thin coat- ing of lampblack, through which some appear- ance of the hue of the surface was apparent, with here and there spots, from a few lines to a fourth of an inch in diameter, which were as black as the skin of the darkest African. On removing the cuticle from one of these spots, it was found to be overspread with a pigment which had much the color of lampblack mixed with mucilage. The hair had changed from its original brown to black, and become coarse and straight. Her eyes were of light hazel, the whites presenting that pearly appearance peculiar to the colored races. Every portion of the surface was free from an icteritous tint. She died in the early part of October, 1857, from disease apparently in no way connected with the discoloration of the skin. These facts show that a physical change may take place by means of which the skin of an individual of a white race may become as black as that of the native of Africa. The coloring matter is likewise liable to be absorbed in the skin of those to whom it is natural, and instances are not uncommon of negroes who gradually lose their black color, and become as white as if they were the offspring of parents of another race. The "Manchester Memoirs" contain the case of a negro 40 years of age whose skin had so changed in two years that the narrator was convinced that all the black portions re- maining did not exceed a square foot, and the change was then continuing very rapidly. The " Philosophical Transactions " contain the case of a negress in Maryland 40 years of age who had been turning white for 15 years, and had become in that time scarcely different in color from a European. Another instance is re- lated in the " Philosophical Transactions " of a boy born in Virginia of black parents, who continued of his native color until he was three years of age, at which time a change began to take place, although the boy's health continued good. At first white specks made their ap- pearance on his neck and breast, which soon increased in number and size so that from the upper part of his neck to his knees he was completely dappled. Dr. Barton relates the case of Henry Moss, a negro, in the state of Maryland, whose skin had undergone a com- plete change from a deep black to a clear and healthy white. The change commenced about the abdomen, and gradually extended over the different parts of the body, so that in seven years it had spread over a greater part of the skin. It had not a sickly or albino hue, as if from the effect of disease, but was of a healthy aspect. He had never suffered from disease, and during this change, which was gradual and