§ 5: On the Cause of the Different Skin Colors of Humans

The ancients regarded the sun as the principal cause of coloration. Climate was considered a secondary cause, having an effect on the skin in proportion to solar heat. This is true to the extent that we observe a general correspondence between complexion, climate, and the sun’s heat.

Speaking generally, the lighter races are those living nearer the poles, while the darker ones inhabit the tropical regions; and between these two extremes we can trace the footprints of many intermediate degrees; but this ratio is not observed on all continents; for in the Americas and in the entire Western Hemisphere, diverse complexions are observed with no ratio to those of the Eastern Hemisphere. The various inhabitants of the Americas whom the Spanish found at different geographic latitudes were not only not colored according to the ratios observed in the Old World, but presented such variety inconsistent with ancient theories that either the theory had to be completely abandoned or a different one sought to explain those phenomena.

There are many examples refuting the ancient theories; the Puélche of Argentina are much darker than those of Paraguay, although the former live farther from the equator than the latter. Indeed, they say concerning the Paraguayans that they are so light that women dressed in European clothing would be confused with European women. The Lapps, the Japanese, the Ostiaks, etc., who live in the northernmost regions, are dark-complexioned.

That the sun is not the direct cause of the alteration of complexions is beyond all doubt, both because the examples have shown that the sun’s effect can only act externally, and because observations demonstrate that the varied complexion has its basis not in the colorless epidermis but beneath the skin, and that the darkness is not a contraction and condensation of the original skin color nor the lightness a rarefaction, but a chemical result of the internal organism produced by the climate’s heat, the quality of food, diet, work, and manner of living, as we shall demonstrate. Fr. Oikonomos, writing concerning the coloration of humans, says: “Examining the human skin closely, we find it composed of two parts; of these, the upper is called the epidermis and consists of two layers, of which the upper is transparent and composed of horny substance (stratum corneum) called the horny layer, and the other immediately beneath the horny layer appears to consist of mucous substance (stratum mucosum), under the epidermis composed of these two layers lies the dermis. Examined in this way, both the dark and light races differ only as to the mucous layer or Malpighian network, but in all other respects there is no difference. Only in the mucous layer or in the Malpighian network appear cells in different peoples containing colored matter. If this coloring matter is very small, filling only the lower parts of the mucous layer, then the human complexion is light. But if this matter is abundant and fills the entire mucous layer up to the horny layer, then the human complexion is deep. Here arises the knot of the question; and when science demonstrates what climate, food, or something else contributes to the formation of more coloring cells, then the coloration of races will be explained. For the present we merely say that in certain organs of the human body, for example the liver and lungs, according to different types being cooler or warmer, certain functions are imposed which they must perform according to the demands of the climate. It is known that in cold climates the lungs work much; in warm climates the liver works much. And for this reason humans born and living in warm places where their lungs have become accustomed to little activity are at risk of tuberculosis when they migrate to cold climates. Those migrating from cold to warm places are protected from such death; but they are subject to liver diseases and cholera. Those among Europeans who survive this change lose their rosy complexion. From the above it appears that where more bile is excreted, there too more abundant colored cells accumulate in the mucous layer of the epidermis, there too the complexion becomes darker. Because bad food and uncleanness of body and air become causes of greater bile secretion, it is easily explained why complexions are dark, for example, among the Lapps and Finns, etc., who both feed and live poorly.”

It was recently observed that among those who migrate to Africa or America, the dark-complexioned are not so easily attacked by epidemic diseases as the fair-haired. According to this same principle, if true, it appears that certain places favor a certain complexion, which once established there was perfected and became hereditary. So those who once acquired a dark complexion through physiological causes, favored by the climate which proves inexorable toward those with different coloring, become the founders of races and nations.

From what has been said up to now, it has been demonstrated that the various varieties appearing among different peoples and races are purely accidental, that is, sporadic phenomena resulting from different causes; and that all the races of the earth have one organism, one nature, and are subject to the same alterations; that shape, age, type, color, and other distinctive characteristics of races are in no way able to distinguish them into separate independent kinds. And finally, that a bond of kinship is discovered between different races tending to connect and reduce to one single kind all the dissimilarities and to demonstrate through internal or moral and spiritual similarity the descent of the entire human race from one common root.