In line with the opinion of Herodotus and the German ethnologists, that
the Black Men of Africa were the first race, and the originators of the
Egyptian and Cretan civilization, Professor Lionel W. Lyde, of England,
announces:
“We are in a position to say that primitive man was dark skinned, and
that he, as he made his way northward, began to bleach, thus creating a
semi-primitive yellow type. This yellow man exposed to conditions of
cold and moisture, might become entirely white. The human skin develops
pigments to protect itself against a strong sun, and the quantity of
pigment in the skin varies with the intensity of the sun.
“It is therefore the men who live in the hottest and least shaded parts
of the world—that is to say, in the African, that we find the blackest
skin. The white peoples, on the contrary, are confined to a region where
the humidity of the atmosphere forms a screen against the rays of the
sun. Finally, between the Negro and the White, is the Yellow man, who is
a product of desiccating grasslands with seasonal extremes of
temperature.”