Skin color

“ Nature provides pigments of color to guard the skin against the inclemencies of sun and weather. Every modern man knows and 70has experienced the result of strong sun and wind in his own skin. “Tan” it is called, and sometimes, within a few weeks the color of a white man’s skin is transformed into a yellow or a dark brown. If the exposure continues, the color remains.
In the opinion of noted scientists, it is certain that the difference between the races as to color is merely skin deep. ”

“ On the whole, it seems that the distinction of color, from the fairest Englishman to the darkest African, has no hard and fast lines, but varies gradually from one tint to another.
The natural hue of skin farthest from that of the negro is the complexion of the fair race of Northern Europe, of which perfect types are to be met with in Scandinavia, North Germany, and England. In such fair or blonde people the almost transparent skin has its pink tinge by showing the small blood-vessels through it. ”

“ We can not, do what we will with environment, change to any appreciable extent our anatomical make-up, A Chinaman's skin will remain yellow, a Negro's skin will remain black, no matter what we may do to alter them, so long as the races remain pure. The only way we can modify the color of the skin or the facial angle or the texture of the hair in any great number of individuals is by crossing with another race. ”

“ People should select colors that go with their skin. And elderly women should not wear grass green, or Royal blue, or purple, or any hard color that needs a faultless complexion. Swarthy skin always looks better in colors that have red or yellow in them. ”

“ The skin rested, as did the brain, so that it seemed probable that central activity, thought, will, or whatever name is given, has some effect in the change of color. The probability is that, as they become pale, the pigment does not leave the skin, but that it is collected in spheres too small to affect our retina, which will be impressed by the same quantity of pigment when more extended. ”

“ It must have a perfectly clear skin, and a decided color or tint, whether white, pink, creamy, gray, brown or black. If white, it must not have a cloud or a blur or haze, nor should the skin have the slightest appearance of being opaque or dead. It must be absolutely free from all cracks, scratches, spots, flaws, indentations, shadowy reflections or blemishes of any kind. It must possess the peculiar luster or orient characteristic of the gem. The skin must be unbroken, and not show any evidence of having been polished. ”

“ White, being analogous to the hue of the skin, is very desirable, enhancing the richness of the eyes and hair, and, as it receives a yellow tint from artificial light, is particularly desirable for an evening dress for the pale brunette. Yellow and white united are also becoming in the evening for this class of complexion, but become dull by daylight, and very undesirable. Gold or maize color contrasts pleasantly with black or dark brown eyes and hair, and neutralizes any disagreeable sallowness that there may be in the skin. ”

“ There are many colors among men, in different parts of the world, and many shades among people of the same color. There are pale-faces fair as the lily, and there are pale-faces so dark, as scarcely to be distinguished from blacks. The sun does much of this; but no sun, nor want of sun, will ever make a pale-face a red-skin, or a red skin a pale-face. ”

“ The evaporation from the human skin is accompanied by a smell which differs in different races. This peculiarity, which not only indicates difference in the secretions of the skin, but seems connected with liability to certain fevers, etc., is a race-character of some importance.
The part of the human body which shows the greatest variety of color in different individuals is the iris of the eye. This is the more noticeable because the adjacent parts vary particularly little among mankind. ”

“ The color of the human skin, for example, is no certain guide in classification. Microscopists have ascertained that the normal colorations of the skin are not the results of organic differences in race ”

“ Our face bleach will turn the skin of a black or brown person four or five shades lighter, and of a mulatto perfectly white. When you get the color you wish, stop using the preparation.'
"Just look at those heads!—'Before using' and 'After using.' We'd better hurry, or there'll be no negroes to disfranchise! If they don't stop till they get the color they desire, and the stuff works according to contract, they'll all be white. ”

“ My color is as good as it ever was, and my hair's just as thick and not a thread of gray. I suppose the time's got to come, if I live long enough, that I shall look in my glass and see my skin yellow and flabby ”

“ Above all things, never attempt to change the color of the hair by means of fashionable dyes and fluids. Color so obtained cannot harmonize naturally with the skin, eyes, and eyebrows that Nature has given. ”

“ Naturally I am inclined to a dark skin, and cannot but think that God knew what He was doing when He gave colored skins to people living in the tropics where clothes are a burden, that their dark complexions might take the place of clothes, and they be protectively colored.
On the same principle nature clothes animals and insects with the colors of their surroundings. Still, I think, human animals ought to get their color as well as their being in a legitimate way. ”

“ Brown-black hair, steel-gray eyes, fair skin with color in cheeks, may wear all greens (save the very light) , cream-white, fawns, grays, browns, reds, violet, a rich pink, and all blues. If any type can wear black with impunity, this can. For jewels, any desired stone.
Black hair, very dark eyes, golden-brown skin, warm color, brilliantly white teeth, may wear rich browns, clarets, deep amber, cream-white, warm pinks and flame-color. Avoid black and very pale colors. Yellow may be worn sometimes, but with a warning here to the black-haired type in general. ”

“ Brown hair, warm brown skin, brown eyes, may wear browns, yellows, ambers, cream-white, rich blues, tans, fawns, all reds, olive-green and maroon; flame-color, and rose pink in small quantities. This type can wear sharp brilliant contrasts of colors if she choose, providing they keep within range. Black, blue, white and all cold, pale colors are to be avoided. The jewels may be diamonds and all rich colored stones. Brown-eyed women should wear brown for the very same reason that the blue-eyed woman should wear blue. ”

“ This action of the sun on the pigment of the skin is very marked. Even among the Africans, the skin is observed to lose its intense black color in those who live for many months in the shades of the forest. It is said that Asiatic and African women confined within the walls of the harem, and thus secluded from the sun, are as fair as Europeans. ”

“ The prejudice against color, of which we hear so much, is no stronger than that against sex. It is produced by the same cause, and manifested very much in the same way. The negro's skin and the woman's sex are both prima facie evidence that they were intended to be in subjection to the white Saxon man. ”

“ The colours of these cells blend with that of the blood, thus producing, according to their number and depth of coloration, the brunette, black, yellow, or red complexion. The palm of the negro’s hand is whiter than the rest of his body, because there the horny epidermis is so thick that the black pigmentary matter cannot be seen through it. And the reason why every negro is born to blush unseen is because the pigmentary matter in his skin is so deep and abundant that it neutralises the colour of the blood. ”

“ For very dark women and girls with good clear skins, there is a large amount of choice in colour—red, orange, and yellows, as well as black, grey, and navy blue. But if the skin be sallow and dull, she may use dark and light reds—no blues nor greens. ”

“ Little specks of coloring matter, or pigment, which lie in the outer layer of the skin. Even white skins contain a little pigment, they are not a pure white. A Chinaman’s skin has a little more of this pigment, so that it looks yellow; an Indian’s has still more; and a negro’s has most of all, making him black.
Sunlight can increase the amount of pigment in the skin. The people who live in the torrid zone have much darker skins than those who live where the days are short and cold. ”

“ The black pigment protects the underlying nerves of temperature, while the solar heat absorbed by this pigment is immediately radiated in the form of perspiration. Now we can see not only why the negro’s skin is more velvety, smooth, and hairless than our own, but why its sweat-pores are larger and more numerous than in our skin. ”

“ The colour of the human skin has always held an important place among physical criteria of race. Physiology explains colour as a consequence of climate and even diet. The pigment or colour- ing matter under the epidermis, or rather under the second or Malpighian skin, is not peculiar to the Negroid and other coloured races, but is common to all human beings. ”

“ The colour of the hair and irides commonly indicates the colour of the skin. If they are dark, the skin is ordinarily dark; and if blue or light, the skin is ordinarily fair. I have seen flaxen hair and surpassing whiteness of skin with eyes as black as death. ”

“ The human skin develops pigments to protect itself against a strong sun, and the quantity of pigment in the skin varies with the intensity of the sun.
“It is therefore the men who live in the hottest and least shaded parts of the world—that is to say, in the African, that we find the blackest skin. The white peoples, on the contrary, are confined to a region where the humidity of the atmosphere forms a screen against the rays of the sun. Finally, between the Negro and the White, is the Yellow man, who is a product of desiccating grasslands with seasonal extremes of temperature.” ”

“ These so-called black eyes are by far the most numerous in the world, belonging not only to brown-black, brown, and yellow races, but even prevailing among the darker varieties of the white race, such as Greeks and Spaniards. In races with the darker skin and black hair, the darkest eyes generally prevail, while a fair complexion is usually accompanied by the lighter tints of iris, especially blue. ”

“ However, to return to the Query: the term pale is applied to the yellow-tinted skin; fair, to the red or pink; brown, to the mixture of red and yellow, with either blue or such darkness as above described; sallow, to yellow and darkness; and the only close approach to whiteness that we ever see, is in the sick room of the long-suffering fair complexion. In death, this changes to a "blackish grey," a mixture of white and darkness.
The pale complexion indicates a thick, hard, dry skin; the fair, a thin and soft one ”

“ Nearly all black and brown skins are beautiful, but a beautiful white skin is rare. How rare, one may learn by walking down a street in Paris, New York, or London on a week-day—particularly an unfashionable street—and keeping count of the satisfactory complexions encountered in the course of a mile. Where dark complexions are massed, they make the whites look bleached-out, unwholesome, and sometimes frankly ghastly. ”

“ It is more important, however, to investigate the amount of difference indicated by the difference of colour, and to do this we must look to the structure of the skin. The structure of the negro’s skin differs from that of the white man in degree only, the one containing much, the other but little colouring matter; this colouring matter being deposited in a particular layer, called the mucous layer, the stratum Malpighii, or the rete mucosum. ”

“ Forbes says, [1313] that from the colour of their skins it is impossible that their blushes should be as clearly visible as in the white races; still under such circumstances as would raise a blush in us, “there can always be seen the same expression of modesty or confusion; and even in the dark, a rise of temperature of the skin of the face can be felt, exactly as occurs in the European.” ”

“ The skin becomes sickly and corrupt, and of a dead leaden white hue, which strangely enough is supposed to be more beautiful than the rich rose-brown, delicately shaded into lighter tints in the less exposed parts, which it would wear if tanned by daily welcome of sun and wind. ”

“ The general fact of increasing nigrescence from temperate towards equatorial regions is conspicuous enough, despite some irregularity of the shading.53 This fact points strongly to some direct relation between climate and pigmentation, but gives no hint how the pigmental processes are affected. The physiologist finds that in the case of the negro, the dark skin is associated with a dense cuticle, diminished perspiration, smaller chests and less respiratory power, a lower temperature and more rapid pulse,54 all which variations may enter into the problem of the negroes coloring. ”

“ DIFFERENT COLORS.—Coarseness and fineness of texture in nature indicate coarse and fine-grained feelings and characters, and since black signifies power, and red ardor, therefore coarse black hair and skin signify great power of character of some kind, along with considerable tendency to the sensual; yet fine black hair and skin indicate strength of character, along with purity and goodness. ”

“ But, under such conditions, the colour of one's skin becomes more or less of a luxury. Protective pigment, at any rate now-a-days, counts for little as compared with capacity for social service. Colour, in short, is rapidly losing its vital function. ”