460 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1921. 



In the course of the study on the Old Americans the impression 

 grew that the category of " red hair " is not wholly homogeneous, and 

 that it probably includes more than one related condition. There are 

 "reds" in which the whole system participates in the phenomenon. 

 The eyes are pale, light blue, or greenish, the skin is akin to the rosy 

 skin of the albino, the breast areola is devoid of pigment, the mucous 

 membranes are light red. Also these individuals are generally be- 

 lieved to differ more or less mentally, as well as in their predisposi- 

 tions to certain ailments, from the average of the population. And 

 there are other " reds," generally of the darker shades in whom the 

 rest of the system does not participate, or participates but little in the 

 condition, is not peculiar, in other words, to any marked extent. It 

 may be that the differences are merely those of degree ; we shall not 

 know until the subject is exhaustively investigated by itself. A 

 study of the blood may one day help to clear matters. 



Red hair, or at least some of it, also changes with age. Some such 

 hair grows nearer to brown, loses in luster and beauty and loses the 

 gold of the red ; while some simply darkens. 



A relation of red hair to the brown is very evident. Most brown 

 hair in certain light shows a more or less marked trace of red, and 

 the moustache of brown-haired men is generally more or less " rusty," 

 that is, nearer red. A relation to the blonds is not apparent, except 

 perhaps through the golden red. It is a golden red which accom- 

 panies all shades of color down to dark brown. On the whole, red 

 hair seems to imply a partial loss of pigment from the hair, a loss 

 limited possibly to the outer layers of hair cells. It is a phase of 

 depigmentation, not a variant of blondness; and the red pigment, 

 if it exists as such, appears to be only a variant of the ordinary brown 

 pigment. 



The relation of red hair to the color of the eyes will be dealt with 

 later. The relation of red hair frequency to social status, as be- 

 lieved to exist in England, did not become apparent among the Old 

 Americans where there is little class distinction. Our highest group 

 socially (on the whole) gave for the men the frequency of 2.2, our 

 lowest 2.0 per cent of red hair; while what could be taken as an 

 intermediate group showed 3.0 per cent. Geographically, the least 

 red hair (men but 1 case, women 0) occurs in our series of the New 

 England States; the most (men 2.7, women 5.6 per cent) in the 

 Middle Eastern States and in those of mixed parentage from more 

 than one State. 



Eye colors in the red-haired. — An interesting inquiry was that into 

 the association of eye colors with red hair. It is common knowledge 

 that red hair is generally associated with light eyes, yet the matter 

 seems never to have been subjected to a rigorous test. Our records 

 disclose the following conditions: 



