PHYSICAL CHARACTERS IN MAN 121 



underneath. It had " bristly parts " about the 

 belly and flanks, which rustled like the quills of a 

 hedgehog. He was born normal, but the skin began 

 to turn yellow at the age of seven or eight weeks, 

 then by degrees changed to black, then thickened and 

 grew into its present condition. The parents were 

 apparently normal and had " many other children," 

 none of which showed this deformity, which seems 

 to have been an extreme form of keratosis. 



Further details of this individual are given (Baker, 

 1755) w^hen he was about forty years old. The skin 

 most nearly resembled " an innumerable company of 

 warts," of a dark brown colour, and near an inch 

 in height when fully developed. His head and face, 

 palms and soles, alone were free from this condition. 

 He now had six children, all with the " same rugged 

 covering as himself," the condition making its first 

 appearance about nine weeks after birth. The 

 describer draws some interesting conclusions, which 

 we may quote in his own words : " It appears, there- 

 fore, past all doubt, that a race of people may be 

 propagated by this man, having such rugged coats 

 or coverings as himself; and if this should ever 

 happen, and the accidental origin be forgotten, 'tis 

 not improbable they might be deemed a different 

 species of mankind: a consideration which would 

 almost lead one to imagine that if mankind were all 

 produced from one and the same stock, the black 

 skins of the negroes, and many other differences of 

 the kind, might possibly have been originall}^ owing 

 to some such accidental cause." In modern language 

 we should call this individual a simple dominant 

 mutation, like so many of the other abnormalities 

 in man. 



According to Sedgwick (1861), this condition was 

 perpetuated for two more generations, two brothers 

 of the fourth generation visiting Germany in 1802. 



