II EXTENSION OF THE DARK TYPE 39 



favour rather lightness of colour. For example, in the 

 neighbourhood of Sils- Maria, in villages where the adults 

 are all perfectly Eomance in darkness of complexion, one 

 sees children of such dark parents with quite fair flaxen hair 

 and blue eyes. I shall subsequently consider more facts of 

 the kind, especially from North Italy. 



Accordingly, statistics intended to serve any really scientific 

 end, in dealing with the relative numbers of fair and dark in 

 Germany, would have to give, besides the age of the children 

 enumerated, the colour of the hair and eyes of their brothers 

 and sisters and parents, and, wherever possible, that of the 

 grandparents. 



It is also to be considered whether male preponderance 

 does not also play a part in the extension of the dark type in 

 our territory, for, in any case, it has been for the most part 

 men who have first introduced it among us. We ought, then, 

 to find, if this preponderance has been at work, that there are 

 more dark men than women among adults. But this must 

 (a further point of view for the statistician) have been the 

 result according to laws already explained in any case, because 

 the dark colour is for us a new character, and female indi- 

 viduals always remain nearer to the stage which corresponds 

 to the condition of the young, that is, nearer to the original 

 condition.^ 



Moreover, male preponderance has an important bearing 

 on the questions before us from another point of view. It is 



^ [The autlioi' here states that supposing there are more men than women 

 possessing the dark complexion in Germany, this effect might be due (1) to the 

 fact that the type was introduced chiefly by men, not by women, from abroad ; 

 (2) to the mere fact that the dark complexion is a ncAv character, however pro- 

 duced, and therefore appears first in the adult males among Germans. The first 

 supposed explanation is said to be a case of male preponderance ; but if we refer 

 to p. 28, where the law of male preponderance is formulated, we shall see that it 

 is the second possible explanation which exemplifies that law. In the statement 

 of the law, p. 28, nothing whatever is said about the efi'ect of introducing a few- 

 males of a somewhat new type among the members of a given race. Trans.] 



