PIGMENTATION IN OLD AMERICANS — HRDLICKA. 457 



found similar conditions — that is, a greater predominance of darks 

 among the females than among the males — in Wales ; and Gray with 

 Tocher ° in Scotland. The latter have also shown further by their 

 studies on Scotch children 10 that the greater darkening of the 

 females is a postnatal, or rather postinfantile, phenomenon. 



For purposes of sexual as well as groupal or racial comparison, it 

 would be very convenient if it were possible to reduce the different 

 classes of hair color to approximate numerical values. It seems well 

 worth while to make an attempt in this direction. Let us take pig- 

 mentless hair as 0, black hair as 100, and medium hair as 50. It will 

 then be reasonable to assign to the " Light-brown " (not blond) class 

 the mean value of 25 and to the light or blond (with golden, yellow, 

 and light-brown near blond) that of 12.5; while the "Darks" will 

 be 75. For red hair, the most difficult to gauge, we may perhaps 

 assume the mean value of 35. These values, which are not as arbi- 

 trary as they might seem, will be seen better in a little table : 



Assumed values of hair colors. 



Lights proper (blonds or near) 12.5 



Light brown (not blond) 25 



Medium 50 



Dark ?5 



Black 100 



Red 35 



If now the records on hair pigmentation be presented in these 

 values, we obtain the following: 



Old Americans: Units of hair pigmentation. 

 [Per 1,000 subjects.] 



Males : Females :: 100 : 101.5. 



The females are on the whole approximately 1.5 per cent darker 

 than the males. This proportion will naturally differ with region 

 as the actual records differ, but the female always shows a greater 

 total. 



• J. Anthrop. Inst., 1900, XXX, 109. 

 »o Ibid., 115. 



