170 
THF. TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September *> 1888. 
times Tone to the danger of the lives of pedes- 
trians and riders on horses or in carriages, he 
would not have given so qualified an estimate of 
the power of speed of our little zebus. Many in 
the chief towns of Europe have been made ac- 
quainted with their capabilities in this mpect by the 
hackery races which formed a prominent feature 
in the exhibition of Mr. Carl Hagenbeck. 
Then as to branding : the process must be badly 
done in the Madras Presidency if it is worse than 
the system in Ceylon, which so largely, sometimes 
completely, destroys the value of hides. Occasionally, 
for fanciful reasons, but mainly to meet the prevalent 
crime of cattle stealing, branding is performed after 
a profuse and cruel fashion in Ceylon. With regard 
to colour, Tennent mentions that white is so rare 
that cattle of that colour were always reserved 
for royal use. 
In connection with white skins (not by any 
means coincident with white hair) in cattle, Pro- 
fessor Wallace has discussed the whole question 
of colour as affected by and in relation to climate. 
He quotes a letter from Huxley to the following 
effect: — "The facts you mention are of very great 
interest as showing a hitherto unsuspected relation 
between colour and climate." Surely this state- 
ment ought to be qualified. The relation of colour 
to climate has been noticed in the fact that mem- 
bers of the human race inhabiting the hotter 
regions of the earth are generally dark in colour, 
while dwellers in cold or temperate countries are 
as generally white. The puzzle has been to ac- 
count for the advantage of the black colour of the pig- 
ment to those on whom " the sun has looked " with 
fervid glances. Franklin's celebrated experiment of 
laying bits of cloth, varying in colour from white 
to black, on snow, while the sun was shining 
brightly, conclusively proved that heat rays are 
absorbed specially by dark colours. The black 
bit of cloth sank deeper into the snow than 
any other. A dark-coloured skin, therefore, would 
seem at the first glance to be disadvantageous 
instead of beneficial to dwellers beneath a 
tropio sun. The importance of Professor Wallace's 
speculations consists in the explanation he 
gives. His position is that in the dark- 
skinned man inconvenient increase of tem- 
perature is prevented, not by such copious perspira- 
tion as is seen on white-skinned persons and 
the evaporation of which cools them down. In 
the case of the dark-skinned men, there is, he 
affirms, a constant cooling down process 
by the escape of moisture from the skin 
pores in the form of almost insensible vapour. 
It now remains for the philosophic world to confirm, 
qualify or question the Professor's ingenious con- 
clusion. The whole problem of colour in the 
human race and its relation to climate is sur- 
rounded with difficulties. Ancient monuments 
would seem to show that dark colour appeared 
early and has remained permanent in large por- 
tions of the human race. And if, as Professor 
Wallace holds, and others bave held before him, 
a white skin betrays inferiority in one of the 
lower animals, it is anomalous surely that the 
white skinned sections of the human race should, 
as a general rule, be so greatly the superiors of 
the black, brown, and yellow races : superior in 
energy and even in intellectual power if not equal 
to the Asiatic in subtlety. In endurance of the 
effects of a hot climate, the dark-skinned 
natives of countries with such a climate have 
a degree of physical advantage. As a reason 
why Europeans coming to India and Ceylon 
should carefully protect their heads against the sun, 
the custom 01 the natives in wearing volumi- 
boub doth turbans has been adduced. But natives 
who walk about in the sun bare-headed and 
even with every particle of hair removed from 
their heads by means of the razor or other depilatory 
agent (the coolies use a bit of broken bottle), — our 
own Moormen for example, whose calico skull caps 
can afford no real protection, — are exempt from 
sunstroke and other evil effects of exposure to 
the heat rays of a tropic sun, which affect Euro- 
peans so severely. And, curiously enough, the 
children of European soldiers and of others 
whose means are limited go about bare-headed 
in the Indian sun and seem to be none the worse. 
The skin darkens in the process, however, and we 
have known old residents in Ceylon who might 
be mistaken for Asiatics, if the sole test were the 
colour of the skin. The late Dr. Dickman, too, a 
shrewd observer, told us that in cases of dysentery 
he could generally calculate the chances of re- 
covery by the colour of the skin of the patient. 
In proportion to the darkness of the skin were 
the recoveries, and so unfavourable an indication 
was a specially fair skin that when Dr. Dickman's 
own wife, a lady of Dutch descent, was attacked 
with the disease, he abandoned all hope of her 
recovery, the event justifying his fears. As to 
white skins in the lower animals indicating in- 
feriority, there is a book on horses (perhaps, that 
by " Stonehenge ") the frontispiece to which is a 
beautiful-looking white horse with pinkish nose, 
which the writer said was an illustration 
of all that a good horse ought net to be. 
Albinos, whether in the human race or amongst 
the lower animals, are generally defective. 
Tennent mentions what we have never observed 
in Ceylon, albino buffaloes with purely white 
hair and a pink iris. This reminds us of 
what we have previously mentioned in the Ob- 
server, the prevalence of pink or flesh-coloured 
buffaloes in Java. They are not rare but nume- 
rous, ai d our late lamented friend, Mr. Moens, 
so well and favorably known in the ranks of 
natural science as the Director of the Java 
cinchona plantations, assured us that these ani- 
mals sLowed none of the defects of albinos, 
but weie regarded as, if anything, stronger 
and moie serviceable than those of the ordinary 
brown colour. Curiously, too, the flesh-coloured 
buffaloes of Java are not a distinct variety, — like 
propagating like. They occur in all herds, alterna- 
ting with the brown, it~ being impossible to say 
beforehand what the colour of a buffalo's calf 
may be. These were the statements made to 
us by Mr. Moens, as the results of his 
observation and experience, and we submit 
that the subject of the prevalence in. Java of 
what is unknown or exceedingly rare in British 
India and Ceylon, " pink-coloured buffaloes which 
are either not albinos or differ from albinos generally 
in showing no defect of vision or strength, but 
the reverse, is worthy of full investigation in 
connection with Professor Wallace's interesting 
theories, which are thus detailed : — 
Colour of Hair. — Indian cattle taken as a race, 
and represented by pure-bred specimens of the dif- 
ferent strains are what may be termed " whole " 
coloured in contradistinction to " broken " coloured. 
By " whole" coloured is not meant that an animal 
is all of a uniform colour, but that in the change 
of colour from that of one part to thnt of another 
part there is no distinct break or division line — the 
colours shade or merge into one another. The most 
common colour is white or very light grey on the 
body, and the extremities grej of various shades, the 
two colours blending harmoniously. The bull of 'mature 
years is usually darker than the cow or young bull. 
Where " broken " or patchy colours appear, they, 
with few exceptions, indicate cross breeding of more 
or lees recent date, No doubt it ie possible in a brede 
