"PRINCIPIA OF ETHNOLOGY..."

Reading in PRINCIPIA OF ETHNOLOGY: THE ORIGIN OF RACES AND COLOR, WITH ARCHAEOLOGICAL COMPENDIUM OF ETHIOPIAN AND EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION (1880) by Martin Robison Delany, I read : "The human body is covered by a structure composed of three different parts: the cuticle or external surface; the 'rete mucosum', middle or intermediate structure ; and the 'cutis vera' or true skin, underlying the other two, covering the whole surface of the fleshy parts or muscular system, called the hide in slaughtered animals. "The rete mucosum is a colorless jelly-like substance, composed of infinitesimal cells like a sponge or honeycomb. The cuticle or external surface is an extremely thin structure, colorless, and as perfectly clear and transparent as crystal glass. The upper surface of the cutis vera or true skin--that part in contact with the rete mucosum--is perfectly white. White is simply negative, having no color at all. "It will at once be observed, that the cuticle or external surface being transparent, the rete mucosum next below it being colorless, and the cutis vers underlying all being white, that all human beings by nature are first white , at some period of existence, whether born white or not. "The cells of the rete mucosum arr filled with limpid fluid, and whatever the complexion of an individual or race, the coloring matter is deposited in the cells of the rete mucosum mixed with limpid fluid. This is deposited there by a process of elaboration and selection in animal chemistry, a function simply of physiology. "The coloring matter in the Caucasian or white race is 'rouge' as we term it, the essential properties which give redness to the rose. When a white person blushes, red matter rushes into the cells of the rete mucosum, then recedes, leaving them as before, colorless, and the complexion white. When a white person has rosy cheeks or 'ruby lips', there is a fixed deposit of rouge in those parts; but where they are pale and 'colorless,' there is an absence of rouge or coloring matter in the rete mucosum. "In the Mongolian or yellow race of Asia, the coloring matter is the same --rouge--modified by peculiar elaboration, and uniformly infused into the mucosum, giving the yellow tinge --one of the known properties of the sun's rays--to the complexion . "And in the African or black race, of Africa the coloring matter is 'the same' as that in the other two races, being rouge concentrated, which makes a pigment , the 'pigmentum nigrum' of physiology--or a black matter. Thus the color of the blackest African is produced by 'identically the same' essential coloring that gives rise to the 'rosy cheeks and ruby lips' to the most delicately beautiful white lady. "For illustration, to prove that concentrated rouge or concrete redness is black , take blood caught in a vessel, let it cool and dry up by evaporation of the liquid part; when condensed in a solid mass, it becomes perfectly black, more so than the blackest human being ever seen. Look again at the fruits , black berries, black cherries, poke-berries and the like. From greenness discoloration goes on till approaching whiteness, when a faint redness ensues, gradually increasing to a deep red, which merges into blackness, the intense color of red..... "Here we see that the first son of Noah, Shem, was born with a high degree of a certain complexion or color; the second son, Ham, with a higher degree on intensity of the same color, making a different complexion from either. The three brothers were all of the 'same color'--rouge--which being possessed in different degrees.... "For the convenience of classification, these complexions may be termed 'positive' 'medium' and 'negative.' Ham was positive, Shem was medium, Japheth was negative. And here it may be remarked as a curious fact, that in the order of these degrees of complexion which indicated the ardor and temperament of the races they represented, so was the progress of civilization propagated and carried forward by them. But is it still in doubt, that the color of the African is homogeneous with that of the Mongoloid and Caucasian races, or that either is identified with that of the other? In this too we summon the incontestable laws of nature . In this we make reference to the three races, Mongolian, African, and Caucasian, or yellow, black, and white." P. 25-27, 28-29, "Race and Color"  After reading this outstanding explanation of race and color from 1880, I wondered whether the three colors: black, brown, yellow-tan, visibly represented by early indigenous tribes of Africa, south to north, as revealed by science in the modern era , may appropriately substitute for the classic yellow, black, white, chromatic triad, so beautifully explained by Dr. Martin Robison Delany? Just curious.