September i, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
171 
which has been formed by crossing two distinct breeds 
many years before, to retain the broken colour as a 
peculiarity of the new breed, but in that case it is well 
defined, and tends in some rejects to become re- 
gular, in such features as a white head, white legs, 
or even white patches on the body of coloured varieties. 
The broken colours peculiar to cross cattle are irre- 
gular and easily recognised by one who is accustomed 
to watch carefully Nature's freaks in the matter 
of cattle reproduction. Pew of those animals which 
are termed white are altogether free from black hairs. 
There is usually a fringe of black or brown round 
the hoof-heads, and frequently patches on I he joints 
above the pasterns. The tuft of long hair at the point 
of the tail is rarely white, and there aie often dark 
markings about tho ears, with: black hoofs, black 
muzzles, and black oyes as coi relatives. The colour 
of the skin within the ear, though dark, is often of 
a lighter shade than the body skin ; frequently the 
tint is orange with dark lougituuinal patches through 
it — one being on the same spot that the dark marking 
occupies in the inside of the ear of Channel Island 
cattle. 
Report,* No. 1,112, of tho Madras Government, dated 
21st December 1880, attempts to show a connexion 
between the colour and certain descriptions of food 
prevailing in the different districts. 1'titldij straw is 
supposed to produce small, poor cattle of a red, 
brown, or black colour ; cholum straw, large powerful 
animals, good milker.-, with wliilcasthe prevailii g colour ; 
and IHtgi s raw, compact and useful beasts, generally 
gtey in colour. Though, with the data available in 
Madias, there dots seem to be somothing in the theory, 
yet whin applied to India as a whole it Utterly breaks 
down. Ii is much uioie likely that in the rice districts, 
where cattle huve to woik so much in water, that the 
dark haired cattle belonging to the aboriginal, and in 
many respects inferior looking breed, were found to 
iiusmjss the hardy constitution suitable! for withstanding 
the wet; and that consequently the larger light- 
eolourcd breeds, that from lime to time overrun dis- 
tiicls ol the country to which they were suited, did 
not there rind lavour. Aguin, land which could grow 
OhOluni could c etter afford to bear the cOJt of the im- 
provement of the cattle by importing than laud groiv- 
ing regi. 
Colour of iskins.— Perhaps the most interesting aud 
remarkable peculiarity connected with Indian cattle is 
the lael that, however white tho hair, all but a very 
small percentage have jet-black tkins underneath. 
Certain bieeds, or uii'mbers ol the same, that will he 
specially mentioned, have skiu, horn, and hoof of a 
I. row n or dark chocolate hue. Only a mere fraction 
of one per cent, have white or light-coloured skins like 
tho most of our own home cattle. Although known 
to the natives, this lact seems to he unrecognised by the 
Riiropcau residents, and consequently the immense im- 
portance of it has been overlooked. Iu Gujerat the 
. Dtiuu KoUa is given to an animal with a while skin 
aud white nose, and it is considered to be soft or 
weakly. A white muzzle aud white skiu on the legs 
and lower part of the body including the dewlap, may 
exist without the above congeal. ences, if the major 
portion of the body skiu is dark. The white skius in 
rare specimens of Indian cattle do not entirely cor- 
respond to the skins of the white African negroes 
mentioned by Joseph Thompson, or to the white skins 
ol . i i tain natives of British India, as these aro al- 
binoi s and the white-skiuned cattle do not appear to 
be so. 1 saw one man, a pure native, a Madrasi with 
a skin as white as any European. He was reported 
to he weakly and eveii less able to withstand heat 
than one of ourselves. 
There is little doi.bt hut that the black skin has 
much to do with c ability of li"'inn cattle to work 
in the sun without suffering as light-skinned cattle 
tlo. In this also will be found the best solution of 
the question as to whether native cattle can be 
improved by crossing with English bulls. An ani- 
inal with a white skiu in our own country, during 
* The terms "Government Resolution" and »' Go- 
vernment Order " are frequently used in plaoo of 
Report, 
a bright summer becomes tender to the touch, and 
will shrink from the hand laid on the back; or 
it even blisters and goes back in condition when ex- 
posed to the full force of the sun, under conditions 
that would not atfect darker varieties. One intelli- 
gent native pointed out that the difference iu the tem- 
perature of English and Indian cattle could hi: recog- 
nised by placing one's hand on the skins. Not only 
is the higher temperature uncomfortable to European 
cattle at the time, but they, iu common with aid 
white-skinned native specimens, are liable to have 
tin lir skins sunburnt, and possibly, in the end affected 
with an eruption coirespoudiug to if not identical 
with a form of leprosy. The hair grows in yellowish 
patches, giving a peculiarly unnatural and rough ap- 
pearance to the coat. I have seen cases in various 
stages of development in most of the important 
brei ds. The constitution in such cases is weakened, 
and the usefulness of the animal is impaired through 
its inability to meet the exigencies ot the climate. 
The skins of nearly all the lower animals— sheep, 
pigs, buffaloes, and horses — under domestication in 
India are black or dark. It is truo that certain 
breeds of sheep have white wool on their bodies, 
and most naturally white skiu under it, but the 
head, or most exposed part (covered only with short 
bair), is frequently black. Sheep, especially the good 
white-coated varieties in India, are much better 
protected than other animals from the direct influ- 
ence of the sun by the wool aud the cushion of 
air jvhich it retains within its interstices, and are 
thus more independent of the influence of colour. 
It would appear that the presence of white hair on 
a black skin is an advantage, being widely preva- 
lent on Arab horses aud also ou many of the 
ill in rent breeds of cattle. It has always been a 
marvel that the white skin, which on account of 
its colour does not absorb heat so quickly as a 
black skin, should not prevail in the human species 
within the Tropics ; aud it becomes even more 
wonderful now, when it begins to dawn upou us, 
that the skins of the lower animals follow the 
same great law of Nature, whatever that law may be. 
It would be assuming too much to take for 
granted that iu the colour lay the only advantage 
in the matter of power to resist the sun's influ- 
ence, which the skins of animals iu India possess 
over the skius of animals from more temperate 
climates." The known difference of quality of sur- 
face, thickness, and texture havo unquestionably 
tin lr influence, but it must be left to experiment 
to determine the relative position of importance oc- 
cupied by each. I am indebted to Professor Huxley 
for making me fully aware of the importance of 
these qualities, which, as he remarks, make the 
question " immensely complicated." Yet it seems 
open to us, on theoretical grounds, with the data 
at our disposal, to look ut the direction in which 
certain influences act, although we may not be able 
prefi ctly to point out the limits of their action. 
* Various theories exist as to the influence of 
colour. Sadat, August 1881, iu a paper "Why 
Tropical Man is Black," says, " Nature having 
learned in ages past that pigment placed behind a 
transparent nerve will exalt its vibrations to the 
highest pitoh, now proceeds npou tho converse reason- 
ing, aud placing the pigment in front of the en- 
larged nerve reduces its vibrations by so much as 
the interrupted light would have excited, a quantity 
which, though apparently trifling, would, when 
multiplied by the whole area of body-surface, re- 
present n total of nervous action that if continued 
would soon exhaust tho individual aud degrade 
tho species." In A'atm-t, November 1664, under 
" The Blackness of Tropical Man," it is 6aid, " In 
additiou to the greater dissipation of heat by black 
than by white Bkius, it is to be inferred that tho real 
protection resulting from pigmeutaiy blackness iu tho 
human skin consists in there being a few of the invisible 
solar rays of tho spectrum in tropical light injari""^ to 
man, which nevertheless possesses unusual pehctra 
live euergy .... but which are intercepted by tin' 
contents of the epidermic pigment cells in the Airicun 
and m the Hindu " 
