Complexion

During the Middle Ages in Europe, the Latin term complexio served as the translated form of the Greek word crasis, meaning temperament.

[1] The term "temperament" referred to the balance of the qualities of hot, wet, cold, and dry; each human body carried a different mixture of the elements.

"[2] As Matthew Simon writes, "Since it served as a fundamental concept, not only in physiology but also in pathology and therapy, complexion theory provided important support for the idea that medicine constituted a unified and rational body of knowledge.

They're very iniquitous, petulant, miserable..."[5] Complexion, in its original sense, engaged the attention of philosophers and musical theorists from ancient times right through to the Renaissance and beyond, in relation to the most favourable balancing of the 'qualities' or elements in order to heal and invigorate the soul: from Pythagoras and the musical theorist Aristoxenus, through Plato's dialogue Phaedo, Aristotle, Saint Augustine in his thesis on music, and Aquinas; and in the Florentine Renaissance, Marsilio Ficino in his work on the immortality of the soul, the Theologia Platonica.

Thus there are many references which filter through into Shakespeare's plays and sonnets derived from this body of thought; particularly in the description of important characters, and to the power of music above all to 'charm the savage breast', adjust the elements, and restore the equilibrium and balance, the 'harmony' of the soul: his characters call for music and are spellbound or restored by it, and in elevated mood, may hear it in the air, or sense its immortal harmonies everywhere.

Many surnames arose out of the existence of a complexion whose particularities may have differed from that of the village or town's population, and thus attracted enough notice to warrant a nickname.

The melanosomes in each recipient cell accumulate atop the cellular nucleus, where they protect the nuclear DNA from mutations caused by the sun's ionizing radiation.

People whose ancestors lived for long periods in the regions of the globe near the Equator generally have more active melanocytes, and therefore larger quantities of melanin in their skins.

A study published in the Journal of Human Evolution proposes that people in the Tropics have developed dark skin to block out the sun and protect their body's folate reserves.

Those living away from the equator have developed a fair skin to absorb enough sunlight to maintain adequate vitamin D in their bodies.