286 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



ence is no greater, and it is even more significant that among the 

 anthropoid brutes no instance of fair head hair is known, just as no 

 instance is known of blue or gray eyes. As regards, moreover, the hair 

 color of the lower races of man in relation to that of the apes it is well 

 to keep in mind the statement of Quatrefages in " The Human Species " 

 that there are " isolated cases in all races of individuals with hair of 

 more or less reddish color." 



The favorable and unfavorable auguries, however, in which the 

 folk-wisdom of mankind has indulged have dealt more in detail than 

 science has sanctioned with the characteristics of the hair. Thus, in 

 nearly all countries popular superstition has looked askance at red 

 hair. Yellow hair, too, has . never in the proverbs of nations been 

 conspicuously associated with talent or deep character. In the ancient 

 tapestries, Judas and Cain are pictured with yellow beards. Fair hair, 

 strangely enough, has not figured in popular maxim as the accompani- 

 ment of great constancy of purpose. More often to brown or chestnut 

 hair has this tribute been paid, and indeed most of the other virtues 

 ascribed. Black hair, notwithstanding its association with the lower 

 races, has not been deemed an unhappy omen, where fine and abundant, 

 though straight, and the lighter shades of red in women — auburn and 

 golden — are often, where the hair is soft, linked in folklore with great 

 steadiness of purpose and an unfaltering loyalty in love. These general- 

 izations, however, it should be said, are made up from a loose article 

 upon " Hair " as found in a rather crude " Encyclopedia of Super- 

 stitions and Folklore " printed in three volumes some years ago — no 

 really authentic work upon the folklore of physiognomy being pub- 

 lished so far as the present writer has been able to ascertain. 



It is of more than passing interest that the facts of criminology 

 should afford quite marked support to the view which would look upon 

 the hair as an index to racial development. " The proportion of dark- 

 haired persons," says Havelock Ellis, one of our highest authorities, 

 in " The Criminal," " is considerably greater among criminals than 

 among the ordinary populations in England, Italy and America," and 

 he adds, " The beard in criminals is usually scanty. On the head the 

 hair is usually, on the contrary, abundant. Marro has observed a con- 

 siderable proportion of wooly-haired persons — a character very rarely 

 found in normal individuals. The same character has been noted 

 among idiots. Among criminal women remarkable abundance of hair 

 is frequently noted and it has sometimes formed their most character- 

 istic physical feature accompanied by an unusual development of fine 

 hair on the face and body." As to the predominant hair-color among 

 criminals authorities do not agree. Even as to the general statement 

 that the hair-color of criminals is commonly darker than that of the 

 normal man authorities are not altogether in agreement, for Dr. Charles 

 E. Woodruff, of the United States Army — himself a painstaking worker 



