PIGMENTATION IN OLD AMERICANS — HRDLICKA. 477 



In view of the manner in which the English records were made, 

 there are no means of separating the pure lights from the mixed 

 lights as in our series, but the English " dark " eyes ought to corre- 

 spond more closely to our medium plus dark browns class. The re- 

 sults show, however, a very much larger proportion of " dark " eyes 

 in Great Britain than among the Old Americans. The more common 

 occurrence among the English of dark to black hair would lead us 

 to expect also a moderately greater frequency in the same series of 

 dark eyes, but the excess of dark eyes is so great as to justify the sus- 

 picion that the Beddoe "dark" eye series includes various eyes 

 besides the medium and dark brown, which makes it unfit for com- 

 parison with our data. After an earnest effort to utilize the English 

 eye records, we are thus left quite helpless. The probability is that 

 the average present eye pigmentation in Great Britain differs only 

 slightly from that of the Old Americans. 



Since Beddoe, the English observers have another and convenient, 

 though somewhat artificial, method of expressing their records on 

 pigmentation, and that is through their so-called "index of ni- 

 grescence." This index, as modified by Parsons, 18 is obtained by 

 adding the percentage of the dark brown and black hair to that 

 of the dark, plus one-half of the intermediary or neutral eyes, and 

 dividing the results by two. Unfortunately, as already seen, their 

 classes of eye colors are very different from ours, which precludes 

 any direct comparison. 



However imperfect our efforts at comparison with the English 

 may have been, they leave two impressions of value. The first is 

 that both the Old Americans and the English, if classed by the 

 mean value of their pigmentation, fall not into the " fair " but into 

 the intermediary or medium-pigmented group, which tapers on one 

 side to the fair and on the other to the brunet. The second fact is 

 that the English s h w in their midst less intermixture with conse- 

 quent blends than do the Old Americans. 



The lack of marked difference in pigmentation between the Old 

 Americans and the English does not denote, however, that no changes 

 in this respect have taken place in the Americans since the arrival 

 from Europe of their ancestors. It is quite possible that a gradual 

 progressive darkening has proceeded in both groups. There are 

 observers in both countries who incline to that opinion. Pigmenta- 

 tion is essentially an environmental and changeable condition, how- 

 ever slow the changes may be. Neither England, nor certainly the 

 United States, are in the sphere of the nordic countries, where blond- 

 ness was produced and where it is being sustained. And the com- 

 position, climate, habits and food of the people in the United States 



18 J. Anthrop. Inst., 1920, 162. 



