180 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



each other. Notwithstanding that there may thus exist 

 eight kinds of mulattoes in the offspring of a single 

 pair of parents, yet, owing to the fact that the differences 

 in their composition may be but shght, they will all 

 appear to be, Anthin certain limits of variation, of one 

 kind, namely, that which has been called the mulatto. 

 That is, mulattoes may appear to breed true within 

 these limits of variation, and yet in reality there is no 

 breeding true, but gametic segregation. 



There is, therefore, nothing at all in the evidence of 

 Professor Pearson's mulattoes which is inconsistent 

 with the operation of Mendehan principles of inheritance 

 in the hereditary transmission of skin colour in human 

 hybrids. Indeed, the evidence of some degree of varia- 

 tion in the mulattoes' colour is clearly not only consistent 

 with Mendelian principles, but actually is precisely what 

 these principles require. A glance at the constitution 

 of the four kinds of gametes formed by the particular type 

 of mulatto we are considering, shows that differences 

 in the tint and colour of miilattoes are to be expected, and 

 that these will be in some cases of a very minor kind, 

 and in others greater. And this is precisely what the 

 evidence adduced by Professor Pearson instructs us is 

 the case. 



A^Tiile this hypothesis which we have very tentatively 

 advanced gives a satisfactory interpretation of the 

 absence of European and negro skin colours among the 

 offspring of mulattoes, it apparently fails, in the light of 

 our present hmited evidence, as adduced by Professor 

 Pearson's correspondent, to explain why the sambo, the 

 quadroon, and the octoroon are all different in colour 

 or tint from mulattoes. But if future precise investiga- 

 tion, directed specially to the elucidation of this point, 

 shall show that there is a Avider range in colour or tint 

 variation among mulattoes than we at present believe, 

 and that at one end of the scale some mulattoes resemble 

 some samboes, and at the other resemble some quadroons, 

 then this hypothesis will cover a wider field of fact. 



Our own hmited observations compel us to believe 

 that the variation among all classes of European-negro 

 hybrids, is wider than is commonly believed. We have 

 several times seen in Wimbledon, a family of three brothers 



