( 322 ) 



his statistics ot the extension of redhaired people in Germany. Now 

 it would not be difficult to prove that Virchow was in no way 

 entitled to such a conclusion on the ground of his statistics; his 

 data were very incomplete and the relations found by him he him- 

 self calls "ganz unzutreffend". I intend to revert to this in another 

 place, but would like to examine another side of Virchow's conclusion 

 somewhat more closely. For where he says that redhairiness arises, 

 either by an increase or by a decrease of the hair-pigment, this 

 implies that in Vnuiiow's opinion redhairiness is the consequence of 

 quantitative difference, and that, in other words, this quality is con- 

 sequently only a question of gradation. Moreover I do not wish to 

 enter into the question whether Virchow has a right to place blonde 

 or brown over against each other as primary or pure hair-colours. 

 Let it suffice for the present to state that Virchow sees no contrast 

 between red and blonde hair, but that the former is only a nuance, 

 either of blonde or of brown. I know only one anthropologist who, 

 in contradistinction to the great majority, raises his voice against the 

 existence of a closer relationship between red and blonde hair, viz. 

 Ammon, who in his Anthropology of the Baden population hazards 

 the suggestion that the difference between blonde and red hair is 

 not founded on a quantitative difference of the pigment, but on a 

 qualitative distinction. .So Ammon is more inclined to the opinion that 

 in redhairiness not a nuance, but a variety renders itself manifest '). 



In working up my anthropological material concerning the population 

 of Holland I have naturally come to the question about the importance 

 of redhairiness, and the conclusion at which I have arrived deviates 

 from the general opinion. The extension of redhairiness in our country 

 causes me to deny every closer relationship with the blonde race. 



Let me begin by pointing out that the composition of our popula- 

 tion is very favourable for an answer to this question. A few 

 years ago 1 had the pleasure in this meeting to throw light upon 

 the main features of the composition of our population from the 

 so-called blonde and brown-haired race. And I could then establish 

 how the composition of our population differs, if the northern part 

 of our country is compared with the southern. The blonde type 

 decreases regularly in a southern direction, going hand in hand with 

 an increase of mixed types, and though of course in a smaller 

 proportion, an increase of the pure brown type. The differences 



l ) Die von manchen Anthropologen beliebte Vereinigung der roten Haare mit 

 den blonden, halten wir fiir unzulassig, denn die roten stehen in vielen Fallen den 

 braunen naher und sind jedenfalls starker pigmentiert, baben vielleicht ein Pigment 

 von anderer Beschaffenheit. Zur Anthropologic der Badener. biz. 129. 



