6 OBSERVATIONS AND MEASUREMENTS ACADEMY MEMBERS 



IMemoirs National 

 [Vol. XXIII, 



Table 4. — Hair color 



i Reddish, not true red. 



The above figures are as interesting as they were unexpected. The members of the Acad- 

 emy, both old Americans and not old Americans, though the latter more especially, show decid- 

 edly more of hair pigmentation than do the old Americans in general. The members of the Acad- 

 emy give no pronounced blonds and no true reds (though two or three were expected by chance), 

 decidedly smaller proportions of light browns, and decidedly larger percentages of darks to 

 blacks. Taking the dark-to-black hair, the old Americans at large have a little more than one- 

 fourth of such, the old American members of the Academy practically one-half, and the members 

 of the Academy not old Americans close to three-fifths. Even the true black seems to be more 

 represented in the Academy than it is in the old Americans outside of it. 



This is a noteworthy showing. It cannot be attributed to error, for no such major error 

 with the same observer in all this work would be possible. There must be another cause or 

 other causes. 



A very potent factor in hair pigmentation is age. While pigmentation of the skin under 

 normal conditions probably remains unaffected or suffers but slight changes with age alone, the 

 pigmentation of the hair, it is well known, with all the originally lighter shades is as a rule pro- 

 gressive. Hair that in infancy was flaxen to light brown, in the fifth decade will generally have 

 reached to medium (medium brown) or even dark shade. Thus through this factor alone the 

 members of the Academy, who with few exceptions present a group in which the whole range of 

 hair darkening has been gone through, must give a record of deeper pigmentation than the old 

 Americans at large who include many individuals in the earlier stages of adult life. 10 



Except in the members of the Academy not old Americans (who show throughout some- 

 what more pigmentation), and with the pronounced blonds and reds, the differences shown by 

 the data, I am inclined to believe, are due to the age factor alone. Should there be any other 

 influence it could only be, it would seem, a correlation between high mental ability and work 

 with darker hair pigmentation, which is not readily preeeptable. 



Nature of hair. — In the report on the old Americans at large there are the following state- 

 ments on this point: 11 



In thickness the hair in healthy old American adults may usually be classified as about medium, with an 

 occasional tendency to moderate fineness * * *. As to shape the hair of the head in the old Americans is 

 generally straight or nearly so. Pronounced natural wave is very exceptional, and naturally curly hair was met 

 with in only one instance, a male. 



Much the same is true of the members of the Academy, especially the old Americans. In 

 none of these could the hair be characterized as coarse or thick, nor again as decidedly fine. As 

 to straightness, matters differ appreciably in the two groups of the Academy. The conditions 

 will best be presented in a small table: 



10 The section on hair color in The Old Americans (p. 25 et seq.) should be consulted in this connection. 

 " C. c, p. 55. 



