172 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



variation as is shown among its individuals, all five having 

 the same father and mother, can find no explanation on 

 the hypothesis of blending. 



Another fact which it is difficult, if not impossible, 

 for this hypothesis to explain, is the existence of two colour 

 classes of mulattoes, the " mahogany " and the " yellow." 

 It is admitted at once, that this problem has yet to be 

 investigated, and the factors producing the difference yet 

 to be ascertained. We cannot be quite sure from Pro- 

 fessor Pearson's note what the yellow mulatto is. Is he 

 only produced when an European marries a negro, or 

 does he occasionally come when a brown mulatto marries 

 a brown mulatto, or when a yellow marries a brown one ? 

 The first answer (supra page 167) of the correspondent leads 

 us to infer the first of these alternatives, but his fourth 

 answer (supra page 167) further leads us to suppose that the 

 other alternatives are also possible. It is most desirable 

 that we should definitely know what is the nature of the 

 offspring when one parent is a brown and the other is a 

 yellow mulatto. And it is also very much to be hoped 

 that some information concerning the proportion of the 

 yellow mulattoes to the brown ones, in the past, will some 

 day be forthcoming. Is the " yellow " race a disappearing 

 one or a stationary one ? 



If it should happen to be the case that yellow mulattoes 

 are sometimes the offspring of brown mulatto parents, 

 then it is evidence of segregation, and is inconsistent with 

 the conception of blending. Any such variation is 

 necessarily incompatible with the existence of gametic 

 blending. Unless the yeUoAv mulattoes represent only 

 the offspring of certain European marriages with negroes, 

 or the marriages of yellow mulattoes inter se, their exist- 

 ence is fatal to the blending hypothesis. For when we 

 consider the very large number of illegitimate births, 

 which in the British portions of the Islands range from 

 53 • 9 to 79 • 2 per cent, of the general births, and that in the 

 past it has been much higher, and we try to form some 

 idea of the extent of the promiscuity which this represents, 

 we find it difficult to believe that in 250 years the yellow 

 and the brown mulattoes, if they have intermarried, have 



