( 323 ) 



between the northern and southernmost parts of our country are 

 in the end rather considerable, and it is for this very reason that 

 our population is so extremely lit to answer a question like this. 

 If it should after all be true that redhairiness is more closely related 

 to blondness, then the variation in the number of blondes cannot but 

 cause a similar change in the number of redhaired people. 



The materials for the following illustration have again been bor- 

 rowed from my inquiry made at the time into the distribution of the 

 colour of hair and eyes among the population of Dutch schools. On 

 the schedules that were distributed for that purpose I distinguished 

 four colours of hair: blonde, brown, red and black, and four colours 

 of eyes: blue, grey, brown and brownish-green. The total number 

 of children examined, amounted, with the exception of the Israelites, 

 to 478.976. The total number of redhaired individuals among them 

 is 11772, so that there are on an average 2. 45% redhaired children. 

 The figures from which this proportion has been borrowed, are high 

 enough to consider this as the exact average. 



The first question we shall answer is : in what proportion do 

 red-haired persons occur in the different provinces of our country. 

 This appears from Table I. In the first column is found the total 

 number of the children examined in each province, in the last (lie 

 number of red-haired ones among them, also in the proportion 

 expressed by the percentage. What appears from this last column? 

 Suppose thai in round numbers the general average is 25 red-haired 

 individuals in 1000 inhabitants, then we see that in four provinces: 

 Friesland, Gelderland, X. Holland and Utrecht the same proportional 

 number appears, that there occurs in Z. Holland only one in 1000, 

 in Groningen 2 in 1000 and in Overijsel and Limburg 3 in 1000 

 less — in N. Brabant 1 and in Drenthe 2 more in 1000 inhabitants. 

 These figures differ so little, also from the general average, that we 

 are in my opinion fully entitled to conclude that in the provinces 

 mentioned the extension of red-haired persons is much the same 

 everywhere. 



This slight difference in the percentage of redhaired persons in our 

 country is corroborated by Table II in which the absolute numbers 

 and the proportions are mentioned of all the places in our country 

 in which the number of the children examined was more than 2500. 

 It was to be expected that where the absolute numbers are sometimes 

 relatively low here, the variation of the percentage would be greater. 

 But yet nowhere does the. proportion fall below 2% and only once 

 a percentage of 2.9 is reached as the most favourable proportion. 

 Where the absolute figures are high, as in Amsterdam and Rotter- 



