WOMEN'S EYES AND POTATO SKINS 
HEN a photograph of the 
Keys quadruplets was pub- 
lished in the May issue of 
this Journal, a number of 
members commented on the eye color 
of the girls. It had been suggested that 
the four children probably represented 
the ‘identical’? type of plural births; 
that is, the case where a single fertilized 
egg-cell splits up, at the beginning of 
development, and a complete individual 
is produced by each separate half, or 
quarter as the case may be. Ordinary 
twins are produced by the fertilization 
of two separate egg-cells, and they are 
therefore not expected to be any more 
alike than ordinary brothers and sisters. 
But identical twins or quadruplets, being 
in reality only one individual divided 
up, are expected to show the astound- 
ingly close similarity which is occa- 
sionally found in life as well as in 
literature. 
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If the Keys quadruplets are of this 
identical type, it was asked, how can 
it be that three of them have brown 
eyes, while the eyes of the fourth are 
very clearly blue? The difference is 
easily seen in Fig. 10, and is confirmed 
by a letter from the father, who writes 
that three have brown hair and eyes, 
while Leota is a ‘“‘a perfect blonde.’” 
Now we have no proof that these 
quadruplets are ‘identical,’ in the 
genetic sense. The fact that they are 
all of one sex, and show a considerable 
resemblance, causes one to think that 
they may be. The fact that Leota has 
blue eyes is not necessarily evidence 
that they are not merely four quarters 
of one original egg. Prof. R. Ruggles 
Gates of the University of California 
has pointed out, in a letter to this 
Journal, that the discrepancy might be 
explained in the way that E. M. East 
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MARY LEOTA 
THE KEYS QUADRUPLETS ON THEIR FIRST BIRTHDAY 
Leota has the distinction of blue eyes; while the three others have brown. It is suggested that, 
like her sisters, she may have inherited the brown pigment, but that she lost it at some time 
while the eyes were developing. Such a loss of an inherited factor is often seen in plants. 
Photograph copyrighted by F. M. Keys. 
(Fig. 10.) 
475 
