The Tropics and Pigment 359 



from Southern Asia, where millions shave their heads as a 

 political or religious observance, and freely expose themselves 

 to a tropical sun without any fear of disaster. Such could not 

 be tolerated did it in any way imperil their comfort, let alone 

 their life. The coloured man wears a turban because he wears 

 his hair. 



Sunstroke. 



Sunstroke menaces the w^hite man, and he is apparently the 

 only animal that can suffer from it. When you enter the tropics 

 your first concern is to secure a helmet hat. for your acquain- 

 tances will have warned you of the dangers you run if you dare 

 to expose your head and nape of neck to the sun. A few minutes 

 is sufficient in some instances for the sun to exact its penalty. 

 TTirust your hand into ice cold w^ater for three minutes, and it 

 will chill your whole body by means of the circulation. Expose 

 your head or nape of the neck for three minutes to a tropical 

 sun, and enough of its energies are poured into the brain to 

 seriously affect its function. They pass into the cutaneous 

 tissues, and are carried thence by the circulation to the nervous 

 system, or, from analogy w^ith the shadow of the Roentgen rays, 

 direct rays from the sun may be transmitted through the scalp 

 and skull to the brain direct. 



I do not purpose discussing the pathology or any other of the 

 factors that enter into the aetiology of sunstroke. It suffices to 

 state, as already demonstrated, that a pigmented skin arrests 

 the sun's rays, so that a black man in the normal circumstances 

 of his life cannot suffer from sunstroke ; but in the unprotected 

 white man, these rays are free to enter Avith inevitable disaster. 



The Chinaman and His Fan. 



The Chinese present many gradations of pigmented skins, 

 from a light lemon colo'ur to a dark tan. 



Canton city produces the finest samples of the lemon yellow, 

 while the coolie and the peasant of the southern provinces 

 possess the darkest tan. One of the most familiar sights to be 

 seen in the streets of the European settlement is a lightly pig- 



