PIGMENTATION IN OLD AMERICANS HRDLICKA. 447 



become "white", his eyes blue, his hair light, ranging from light 

 brown, yellow, or golden, to almost colorless. In the more central 

 parts of Europe the depigmentation was less effective, and the re- 

 sult is the intermediary "Alpine" or "Kelto- Slavic" type; while 

 in southern Europe, Asia Minor, and northern Africa it was still 

 less, leaving us the swarthy to brown, dark-eyed and black-haired 

 Mediterraneans. It may be noted, however, that, except in full 

 albinism, even the whitest skin, the lightest blue eye, and the lightest 

 hair still retain some of the old pigmentation. The blue eye in par- 

 ticular is not blue because of any new form of coloration but be- 

 cause the remaining pigment is limited to the posteriormost cells of 

 the iris, the result of which is that the eye appears more or less blue 

 on refraction ; but, viewed from behind, the iris is not blue. 



EFFECTS OF MIXTURE. 



Through long residence in their respective regions, and inbreeding, 

 the three main types of pigmentation, or rather depigmentation, in 

 Europe have become fairly fixed, so much so that even a prolonged 

 residence elsewhere, such as that of some offshoots of the blond type 

 in parts of the Mediterranean region and that of the dark Jew or 

 offshoot of the Mediterraneans in northern Europe, has not been 

 potent enough fully to efface either the blondness or darkness, though 

 there has not been a complete preservation. There are, however, 

 no sharp lines of demarcation, no break of continuity, between the 

 blond and medium, or the latter and the dark type; even where 

 purest they pass on the boundaries imperceptibly into each other. 



But due to original individual variation in the grade of the de- 

 pigmentation, and to the great mixings of the European peoples 

 before and especiaUy within historic times, a large majority of the 

 people of every larger country, and even district, retain some of the 

 old differences in these respects or have lost more or less their one- 

 time purity. A great majority of the present population of Europe 

 are mixed bloods — within the limits of the white race — and the 

 mixtures have played havoc with pigmentation. 



Yet the effect of the mixings in relation to pigmentation has been 

 simple enough, consisting merely of an addition by the darker parent 

 of so much melanin — or more strictly of so much more tendency to 

 form melanin — to the progeny. In the blonds this tendency has been 

 largely lost ; in the mediums and darks partly to largely preserved ; 

 in the mixtures of darker strains with lighter it becomes more or less 

 restored, and in consequence the progeny will show in varying de- 

 grees a darker pigmentation than the light parent. By admixture 

 with a darker line the blond strain returns more or less toward its 

 ancestral pigmented condition. Whether any of the first or second 



