THE RACES OF MANKIND. 295 



people as at least moderately handsome. Setting aside hair and com- 

 plexion, there is still enough difference in the actual outline of the feat- 

 ures to distinguish the negro, Caffre, Hottentot, Tartar, Japanese, and 

 North American faces from the English face below. 



The color of the skin, that important mark of race, may be best 

 understood by looking at the darkest variety. The dark hue of the 

 negro does not lie so deej) as the innermost or true skin, which is sub- 

 stantially alike among all races of mankind. The negro, in spite of 

 his name, is not black, but deep brown, and even this darkest hue does 

 not appear at the beginning of life, for the new-born negro child is 

 reddish-brown, soon becoming slaty-gray, and then darkening. Nor 

 does the darkest tint ever extend over the negro's whole body, but his 

 soles and palms are brown. The coloring of the dark races appears to 

 be similar in nature to the temporary freckling and sunburning of the 

 fair white race. 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 neoTo is the com- 

 plexion of the fair race of Northern Europe, of which perfect tyj^es 

 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. In the nations 

 of Southern Europe, such as Italians and Sj^aniards, the browner com- 

 plexion to some extent hides this red, which among darker peoples in 

 other quarters of the world ceases to be discernible. Thus the differ- 

 ence between light and dark races is well observed in their blushing, 

 which is caused by the rush of hot red blood into the vessels near the 

 surface of the body. The contrary effect, paleness, caused by retreat 

 of blood from the surface, is in like manner masked by dark tints of 

 skin. 



The range of complexion among mankind, beginning with the tint 

 of the fair- whites of Northern Europe and the dark- whites of Southern 

 Europe, passes to the brownish-yellow of the Malays, and the full- 

 brown of American tribes, the deep-brown of Australians, and the 

 black-brown of negroes. Until modern times these race-tints have 

 generally been described with too little care. Now, however, the 

 traveler, by using Broca's set of pattern-colors, records the color of any 

 tribe he is observing, with the accuracy of a mercer matching a piece 

 of silk. The evaporation from the human skin is accompanied by a 

 smell which dift'ers in different races. This peculiarity, which not 

 only indicates difference in the secretions of the skin, but seems con- 

 nected 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 



