ANTHROPOLOGY 219 



The chief interest of the paper is perhaps in the indications 

 which it gives that these trifling physical characteristics have 

 been evolved under the stress of different climatic conditions, 

 and, as already mentioned, the facts appear to witness to the 

 surprisingly keen edge possessed by the pruning knife of natural 

 selection. The paper does not deal with any of the brachy- 

 cephalic types. 



In the same number of the Journal there is a paper by F. G. 

 Parsons entitled " The Colour Index of the British Isles." In 

 this discussion of nigrescence in the British Isles, Parsons is, 

 of course, following up the foundation work of Beddoe, but he 

 does not adopt the same scheme of estimating pigment as 

 Beddoe used. His scheme allows due weight both for colour 

 of eyes and for colour of hair, and his results show the importance 

 of tabulating males and females separately. He divides the 

 colour of hair into five categories, namely, red, fair, brown, 

 dark brown and black. Parsons says that, in making rapid 

 estimates of the colour of eyes, it is necessary to distinguish 

 between light, dark and neutral ; but that where it is possible 

 to make careful observations, the neutral category becomes 

 unnecessary. Parsons obtains his index of nigrescence by 

 adding in any given case the number of people with dark 

 brown and black hair to the number of people with dark eyes 

 (half the neutral eyes being classed as dark), and then dividing 

 the result by two, and expressing this final result as a percentage. 

 The paper includes a large number of indices of nigrescence 

 obtained in this manner. The figures show, as might be 

 expected, a very wide range of variation, some of the indices 

 being below twenty and others above seventy-five. There 

 is a very marked increase of nigrescence as we pass from 

 Eastern England into Wales ; and a similar, though less 

 marked, increase as we pass from Eastern to Western Ireland. 

 There is a regular and somewhat marked excess of nigrescence 

 in the female sex as compared with men ; and except in 

 very dark areas, the rural population is fairer than the urban 

 population. Parsons finally gives figures to show the distribu- 

 tion of red hair, which is most common in Scotland and the 

 North, and is also commoner in the upper classes than in the 

 lower classes. 



The same number of the Journal includes a paper by Mr. 

 J. Reid Moir entitled ** On the Occurrence of Flint Implements 

 of Man in the Glacial Chalky Boulder Clay of Suffolk." Mr. 

 Reid Moir believes that the flints he describes in this paper are 

 probably of an Early Mousterian type, and, if this be the case, 

 the facts are in perfect accord with the previous discovery by 

 Mr. Moir of Chellean implements in the underlying Middle 

 Glacial Gravel. The reader may remember that Mr. Reid Moir 



