"PROFESSOR RIDGEWAY AND RACIAL ORIGINS" 135 



" Words," says Hobbes, " are the counters of wise men, but 

 the money of fools." Mr. Houghton, like many others, catches 

 up terms, such as protective colouring, mimicry, or mutation, 

 and believes that by merely repeating them he is enunciating 

 unshakable scientific truths. But v^hat is " adaptive colouring " ? 

 Adaptive is a relative term. To what is the colour adapted ? 

 To the environment in which the animal lives. But it by no means 

 follows that white is only to protect the animal from its animal 

 foes or to render it easier for it to stalk its prey. I have 

 made no such assumption respecting the blondness of the 

 northern race. I only argue from the analogy of the dark colour 

 of the Negro in the tropics, which Mr. Houghton himself admits 

 to be protective against " the actinic rays of the sun " ; in other 

 words, it is a case of " adaptive colouring," as he might have 

 seen, had he understood the use of that term. 



He is evidently not aware that the leading biologists now 

 explain the white colour of Arctic animals, not as a protection 

 against living foes, but against the cold, white being the best 

 colour for keeping in the heat of the body. The blondness of the 

 northern race may have therefore a real protective value, as has 

 the blackness of the Negro, by Mr. Houghton's own admission. 

 But this is not mere theory. When the Nares and Markham 

 Arctic expedition was being organised, it was stated in the 

 Press that in selecting men for the crews, preference was 

 given to the blonds, because the experience of whalers had 

 shown that fair-complexioned men stood the rigours of the 

 Arctic winter better than those of melanochrous hue. Conversely 

 there is a large body of evidence to show that in West Africa 

 and other tropical regions men of blond complexion suffer 

 far more from the climate than those of a dark complexion. 

 The change in hue of the eyes under Antarctic conditions, 

 cited above, clearly proves a connection between light colour 

 and Antarctic or Arctic conditions, which is not for the purpose 

 of protection against foes. This " adaptive colouring " is cer- 

 tainly not to protect men from the penguins and other birds, 

 nor yet to enable men to capture these birds more easily, 

 but it has probably a much deeper protective significance. 



Now, as Mr. Houghton admits that the action of environment 

 affects the pigmentation of the skin in tropical and subtropical 

 countries, but on the other hand denies it for northern regions, 

 he is bound to shovv at what point, let us say, between the 



