SKIN COLOUR 169 



The offspring of the mulatto (which type is not 

 stated, but we infer it is the common or brown one) and 

 the negro is a " sambo," " having a deep mahogany 

 brown skin colour." " The sambo type is very distinct, 

 and there is no reversion either to the white or black 

 races." There is appended to this description of the 

 " sambo " a pedigree of a sambo family. Now this 

 pedigree appears to us to be the most important statement 

 of fact in Professor Pearson's note, and seems to be the 

 key to the whole problem. Let us consider it. The 

 father is a mulatto and the mother a negress. There 

 are four daughters, one son, and a grandson. The 

 colour of two of the daughters is described as '' paler 

 mahogany," another one as "dark mahogany," while the 

 remaining daughter and the son are described as " very 

 dark, but plainly not a negress or negro respectively." 

 Now here we have apparently three degrees of colour 

 in the one family from the same parents ; there are 

 (1) pale mahogany, (2) dark mahogany, (3) very dark 

 mahogany. If this be not segregation, will Professor 

 Pearson tell us what it is ? He, himself, is apparently 

 surprised at the remarkably wide range of colour mani- 

 fested, for he remarks that : "In this case the range of 

 colour is fairly wide, and it is open to those whom it 

 pleases to' divide this or any other family into two halves, 

 containing the lighter and darker members respectively. 

 The difficulty of such a classification is that the dark 

 mahogany members are quite distinct from negroes and 

 the paler mahogany from mulattoes." Now this difficulty 

 is really not one at all, except to the biometrical 

 exponent of the hypothesis of blending, and to him it 

 is fatal. It is, however, well to remember that the 

 question of distinctness between some negroes and some 

 samboes and between these and some mulattoes has not 

 yet been investigated by those familiar with the details 

 of Mendelian phenomena. 



Before we turn the first lever in the problem with 

 the Mendelian key, let us see first how well or badly the 

 biometrical key will fit it. This key is the hypothesis 

 of blending. AH the questions set by Professor Pearson 

 to his correspondent strike that note ; almost, indeed, 

 pray for that consummation. What result then shall 



