Every person who is not an albino has some coloring matter in his skin. This coloring matter is called pigment. Some races have more pigment in their skins than other races. Negroes and Indians, for instance, have a great deal.
When a light-skinned person stays out of doors in the sun for hours at a time, he usually gets tanned. He gets tanned because the sunshine makes more pigment form in his skin. Sometimes the pigment comes in spots instead of in an allover coat of tan. These spots we call freckles.
Freckles and red hair seem to go together. For some reason red-haired people are more likely to have freckles than other people. No one knows why.
Freckles closeup |