76 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



case married a pigmented negress. But by his first 

 wife he had one albino and five pigmented children, 

 and by his second wife three albino and six pigmented 

 children. The complete disappearance of the al- 

 binism in the first generation, and its reappearance in 

 the second, shows that albinism in man, as in lower 

 forms, is a recessive character to pigmentation. 

 The results of these marriages are perfectly unintelli- 

 gible on the conception that blending of characters 

 occurs. For how, by any process of blending, can 

 four albino children be produced out of a marriage of 

 a normally-pigmented negro and a negress ? The 

 blending of black with black does not produce white ! 

 And how can we explain the mixed nature of the 

 offspring — some individuals being albinoes and others 

 pigmented — on the blending conception. A blend is 

 expected to produce an uniform result. But the 

 whole of the facts are explicable on the hypothesis of 

 segregation and gametic purity. The albino grand- 

 father married a normal negress. All three of their 

 sons will be, therefore, hybrids of the nature D R, 

 where D stands for the dominant character of pig- 

 mentation, and R the recessive character of albinism. 

 So long as these sons marry only normal negresses 

 {i.e., D D's), a pigmented offspring only is expected. 

 That appears to have been the case wdth two of the 

 sons. But if the third D R son shall marry a negress 

 who is also D R , then we expect in the offspring 

 albinoes and pigmented individuals in the proportions 

 of 1 : 3. This appears to be the kind of marriage 

 that the third son contracted with both wives. 



