SELECTION IN MAN. 173 



that the tailors and shoemakers include a large proportion of 

 dark men. I have tested also to some extent the painters, 

 plumbers, etc., the weavers, the colliers, the smiths and 

 carpenters. The first seem to yield figures resembling 

 those of the tailors ; the colliers include many blond men ; 

 but they and the weavers are unsatisfactory by reason of 

 their local distribution. The number of the middle and 

 upper class recruits is small ; they are included here among 

 the clerks. The higher classes in England and Ireland, 

 so far as my observations go, are rather on the blond side 

 of the general average of the populations, but the present 

 investigation yields nothing in support or explanation of 

 this. 



" Legal selection," says De Lapouge, ''ought to operate 

 so as to prevent the criminal from mischief, and to suppress 

 his posterity." Of course at present we do this very im- 

 perfectly ; and our failure to do it has and will long have 

 disastrous effects; still our action has probably some force 

 in that direction. That certain physical types tend towards 

 criminality is generally acknowledged, though some criminal 

 anthropologists may be too hasty in defining them. In 

 this country more criminals than honest men are of dark 

 complexion. Thus Roberts and Rawson ^ supply material 

 for the followino- table, which includes the whole British 

 Isles — 



General population ^ 

 Criminals in prison 

 Lunatics in asylums 



Here the criminals have about 54 per cent, of dark hair 

 against 50^, and 10 per cent, more of them have dark 

 eyes. Red hair appears in smaller proportion than is usual. 

 These characteristics run through the statistics of the four 

 countries without much variation. 



The followino- data are abstracted and summarised from 

 the Police Gazette for several years : — 



1 Final Report of the Anthrop07netric Committee, p. 21. 



^ These figures are not strictly comparable with those I have been 

 analysing, the mode of collection having been different. 



