170 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



divide the neutrals on this principle, we shall find that we 

 have in the first generation 29*9, and in the last 29*8 of 

 dark hair. 



It is often asserted that the milk of brunets is richer in 

 solids than that of blonds ; but I do not think the state- 

 ment, though not improbable, rests on any sound founda- 

 tion. 



So far our inquiry leads one to suspect a certain degree 

 of physical inferiority in the blond constitution, which may 

 possibly be operating towards the gradual diminution of 

 this type. Let us now try a comparatively uncultivated 

 branch of the subject. 



I have examined a large quantity of material derived 

 from the serial volumes of the Police Gazette, or Hue and 

 Cry. These contain the lists of deserters from the Army, 

 Militia, Marines and Royal Navy, with their names, stature, 

 complexions, occupations and alleged birthplaces. I must 

 allow, in limine, that these deserters are themselves the 

 product of successive selections, and are therefore not alto- 

 gether trustworthy representatives of the general or lower- 

 class population. They are not conscripts, but volunteers ; 

 moreover, these volunteers have been again sifted by the 

 medical rejection of the physically unfit, and these deserters 

 are the product of a third selection implying possibly moral 

 if not physical qualities of a kind differing from those of the 

 soldiers who do not desert. Still, after all this has been 

 said, there is a ofood deal of internal evidence to lead one 

 to think of them as not a mere heterogeneous collection, 

 but something approaching to a sample of the classes they 

 belong to. 



I have taken great pains to eliminate the personal equa- 

 tion of the medical observers, by using the returns for a 

 number of years, scattered over the period from 1845 ^^ 

 1885, and have rejected any returns which seemed to bear 

 evidence of careless and slovenly observation. 



I have also abstracted and analysed the lists ol con- 

 victed or suspected criminals, of runaway convicts during 

 the period of transportation to Australia and Tasmania, and 

 of men discharged from the Army with disgrace. 



