142 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the relationship between the pigmentation of the hair and eyes of the 

 individual and his mental characteristics, his bent towards criminality, 

 his health and his capacity for survival has received the widest dis- 

 cussion. 40 



The relation of pigment to selection has been discussed chiefly from 

 two points of view — that of urban selection 41 and that of susceptibility 



As early as 1904 Pearson, 42 working with Pfitzner's data for Lower 

 Elsass, suggested that the high correlation between age and pigmenta- 

 tion in the case of post mortem cases is more nearly explained by a 

 selective death rate of the lighter types than by the assumption of a 

 darkening with age alone. In the same year appeared a most sug- 

 gestive paper by Strumball, 43 who attempted by the comparison of 

 hospital censuses with the general English population to ascertain 

 whether susceptibility to various diseases is dependent upon the anthro- 

 pometric characteristics of the individuals affected. He concluded that 

 blond features are associated with acute rheumatism, heart disease, 

 tonsilitis and osteo-arthritis, and that the brunette traits are associated 

 with nervous diseases, tuberculosis and malignant diseases. 44 



MacDonald 45 finds that for scarlet fever, diphtheria, measles and 

 whooping cough among Glasgow school children recuperative power is 



discussed by Cuenot, Little, Castle, Morgan, Bateson, Wilson, Durham and others. 

 Apparently, no one has succeeded in finding a mouse pure to yellowness. The 

 suggestion has been made that two gametes both having the determiner for 

 yellow are incapable of uniting in fertilization or that they are not viable if 

 they do unite. 



*° To mention even the chief of these papers, the most of which are based on 

 data or methods inadequate for conclusive results, would require too much space. 



41 Anthropologists have devoted much attention to the highly complex prob- 

 lem of the difference in pigmentation between urban and the surrounding rural 

 populations. Ripley in his " Races of Europe ' ' gives a good general discussion, 

 to disease. 



42 K. Pearson, BiometriJca, 3 : 464-465. 



43 F. C. Strumball, ' ' Physical Characters and Morbid Proclivities, ' ' Saint 

 Bartholomew's Hospital Reports, 39: 63-126, 1904. 



44 Of course, general suggestions and some statistical work precede Strum- 

 ball 's work. To many of these he refers. More recently, in a discussion on 

 "Heredity and Disease" (Proc. Boy. Soc. Med., 2 1 : 96-98, 1908), he returns 

 to some phases of the question and concludes that the onset of tuberculosis is 

 earlier in blondes, but that the disease is more frequent in dark types. 



"D. MacDonald, "Pigmentation of the Hair and Eyes of Children Suffer- 

 ing from Acute Fevers, its Effect on Susceptibility, Recuperative Power and 

 Race Selection," BiometriJca, 8: 13-39, 1911. Here he has brought together a 

 detailed review of the earlier theories and evidences. While his resume" is 

 restricted to writings by those of scientific standing, the diversity of results show 

 that much of what has been authoritatively laid down is nothing more than 

 casual observation and vague suggestion. 



