42 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



anyrate, we have the following facts : that no very 

 dark race occurs in temperate climes either north or 

 south, that the negroes of equatorial Africa are 

 distinctly darker than the Bantus and Hottentots 

 of South Africa, and that the negroes of North 

 America have become lighter since their importation. 

 I have sometimes thought that perhaps modifications 

 due to stimuli might differ from mutations in not 

 exhibiting Mendelian segregation, but the evidence 

 so far as we have any is contradictory, for while 

 crossing of negroes with whites always gives inter- 

 mediates in all degrees of mixture, we have a con- 

 stantly repeated segregation when dark whites and 

 fair whites interbreed. Eimer mentions this as 

 especially conspicuous in South German villages, 

 where the inhabitants continually intermarry, and 

 yet pure blondes and dark children occur constantly 

 in the same family. This may be typical Mendelism, 

 the dark complexion being dominant and the blonde 

 recessive ; but it requires further investigation.* 

 There are, however, many race characters which seem 

 to be evidently mutations, since there is no evidence 

 that they are useful or due to external conditions. 

 As examples of these, we may mention the character 

 of the hair with regard to curling, the direction of 

 the eye-aperture, the prominence of the nose. We 

 have little precise evidence concerning Mendelian 

 inheritance in these. Mr. G. P. Mudge pubHshed 



■=■ Mr. C. C. Hurst has recently shown that dark eyes of any 

 shade are dominant to blue eyes, and that the two characters 

 segregate in Mendelian fashion. — Proc. Roy. Soc, 1908. 



