ORIGIN OF COLOR. 589 



quite immaterial. If the organ be in any manner enfeebled in its duty, 

 and no other avenue is open through which the degenerating hasmatin 

 may escape, it must accumulate in the circulation, and be deposited here 

 and there in suitable places. Under such circumstances, there arises a 

 tendency for its accumulation in a temporary manner in the lower and 

 more spherical cells of the cuticle, from which it is removed by their 

 gradual exuviation and destruction as they become superficial. The 

 temporary deposit of the coloring matter in tins situation imparts to the 

 skin a shade more or less deep. It may amount to a perfect blackness ; 

 for the origin of the black pigment of the negro is the same as The color of the 

 that of the black pigment of the eye in all races, and the pre- skin derived 



, . . t L. T i -. from the h*- 



dominating percentage 01 iron it presents plainly betrays ma tin of the 

 that it arises from a degenerating haimatin, in which the kiood. 

 same metal abounds. 



I believe, therefore, that the coloration of the skin, whatever the par- 

 ticular tint may be, tawny-yellow, olive-red, or black, is connected with 

 the manner in which the liver is discharging its function. That de- 

 posits of black pigment can normally arise in the way of a true secretion 

 by cell action is satisfactorily proved by their occurrence in angular and 

 ramified patches in the skin of such animals as the frog ; and that hae- 

 matin, in its degeneration, may give rise to many different tints, is sub- 

 stantiated by the colors exhibited by ecchymoses. 



It is not to be forgotten that coloration of the skin, though apparently 

 persistent, is tending continually to a removal, because of Constant re- 

 the oxidation which is taking place as the pigment cells ap- ^^fof ^ 6 

 proach the surface of the cuticle in their process of desquama- skin, 

 tion ; but as this goes on, new cells and new pigment are perpetually 

 forming beneath, to undergo destruction in their turn. Under this point 

 of view, the complexion of the skin is an index of the energy with which 

 that tissue is addressing itself for the removal of metamorphosing ha3- 

 matin. In accomplishing this removal, the liver, in the fair races of man- 

 kind, exerts a sufficient activity; but in hot climates, the habitation of 

 the black races, either through a diminished power of that gland, or be- 

 cause of an increased production of effete pigment, the skin has to lend 

 its aid, and the degree to which it does this is betrayed by the depth of 

 its hue. 



Having thus traced the coloration of the skin to existing peculiarities 

 of hepatic action, I may repeat the remark already made, influence of the 

 that it is not improbable that, in the most degraded negro efon^he form^f 

 type, the prognathous form of the skull may be attributed the skull. 

 to the same cause. 



Not that this alone is always the cause, for a prognathous skull can 

 by degrees arise, as we have seen, in any race, even the white, from a 



