Show Can the Ethiopian Change His Skin The latest freak of nature which has been lerciting comment and inviting in-viting study among medical and scientific men jar Bays the Louisville CourierJournal a negro woman who is gradually changing color and getting get-ting a very handsome white complexion com-plexion The negro womans name I is Jane McKay and she formerly lived on Broadway near Sixth street but is now residing on Sixteenth betweenCnestnut and Madison streets Louisville She is a nutive of that city and is about 30 years old Her parents were negroes of the old fashioned type with all the marked characteristics of their race both inform in-form and manners When she grew ap nothing unusual was noticed in her color which was of a dark brown nearly approaching the shiny black features which are seen in the negroes of the typical southern stamp She looked a full blooded Degrees and her short kinky hair thick lips and shiny black eye and glossy color so pronounced her The change of color first became noticeable about five years ago when a email piece of the skin on the side of her neck was rubbed oS and in place of the natural shade a white spot was left when the place was healed up This waa thought peculiar pecu-liar and the astonishment of those who knew her was greatly augmented when another similar spot appeared on her neck a little higher up Tail spot looked as if the natural skin had been pushed off and the white grown in its place The spot increased very elowly but gradually became elongated elon-gated and both white spots were united in one making a patch larger than a silver dollar Soon after this a number of the white patches appeared ap-peared on her face neck and arm until she bore the appearance of having hav-ing been slightly sprinkled with white paint One patch on her forehead near the left eye was particularly noticeable on account of its size ana the rapidity with which it increaeed as it continued to grow down the side of her face uniting with a patch on her cheek leaving half the sida of I her faun a naln flash color which con treated strongly with the blackness of the rest oi her features The change of color has been going on slowly ever since until sbe is nearly white her limba and body having also partaken in the transformation Her appearance is most remarkable remarka-ble and in its unfinished state rather repulsive The change is i now BO great that the natural color is only seen in patches on her face and she bears the appearance of having once been white but undergoing a change to the colored race The striking thing about her which would at once ezoite curiosity is the contrast and blending of the different colors The head is still surmounted by a thick growth uf woolly hair of the most decided African type the epee pre erve their natural shining look and the whites are clear and large setting set-ting them off to fine advantage Across the left aide of the face is one broad strip of white extending from the chin to the centre of the forehead icing broken here and there by a small black patch of skin like a figure engraved in the flesh The other side of the face is more mottled mot-tled and toe black and white alternate alter-nate with considerable regularity Her neck and hands have nearly undergone un-dergone a complete and entire change and are as white as those of any Caucaeaian The body is of the ame color and as the white is still increasing the transformation will Boon be completed with the ezcep ion of the hair and eyes which will betray her African origin She takes to the matter very kindly and does not seem at all to object to being made white Bach cases as this are very rare and are generally the result of some disease often hereditary Dr Luna ford F Yandell probably the best author fcjr in the country on such diseases dis-eases in 1879 wrote an elaborate I article on the subject in which he reported thirteen cases a few of f which were those of white persons turning black He states that as to t the cause of the transformation nothing noth-ing but speculation can be advanced Several diseases have been known to t produce vitiligo or change of color 0n and Wilson gives the case of a man who was terribly frightened by being shot at and whose entire skin became be-came black in less than three months Typhus fever has in several cases been known to cause this change In the article Dr Yandell gives one particularly extraordinary case that of a negro woman who suffered a severe attack of pleuropneumoaia which was followed by perfect re very Soon after while in unblemished un-blemished health a change of color pervaded her entire peraon and in i iwentyfour hours she became white from head to faD and was often afterward mistaken for a Gaucasian nn Her geueral health is not aflected in the slightest degree by this change and there is nothing to indicate the strange forces at work except their results |