S2 



NATURE 



[June 24, 1920 



records of Beddoe in which the sexes had not been 

 kept separate. Fortunately, however, nearly fifteen 

 thousand records on males alone remained available. 

 In the Northern and Eastern Counties, in the low- 

 lands of Scotland, and again in Sussex and Hamp- 

 shire, the correspondence of the tracks of the hair and 

 eye indices was most marked, whilst in the Western 

 and West-Central Counties, in Wales, and in the 

 Highlands of Scotland the darkness of the hair was 

 very much greater than that of the eyes. It was 

 pointed out that those regions in which the hair and 

 eyes correspond in lightness were historically regarded 

 as the sites of the purest Nordic blood in these islands, 

 while those parts in which the hair track was much 

 higher than that of the eyes were the sites in which 

 we have every reason to believe the Mediterranean blood 

 had mixed most freely with the Nordic. Where the 

 two races had mixed it appeared that the light Nordic 

 eyes and the dark Mediterranean hair were the 

 dominant factors. Except in Wales, a percentage of 

 more than 50 dark eyes is unknown in the British 

 Isles. 



On comparing town and country dwellers it was 

 noticed that the towns were darker than the country, 

 except in those parts where the nigrescence was very 

 high, when the* reverse was the case. It was sug- 

 gested that one reason for this might be that the 

 town dwellers were more migratory than those of the 

 country, though probably this did not account for all 

 the difference. 



The distribution of red hair was worked out and 

 foundl to be greatest in Scotland and the North of 

 England, where the nigrescence was least. It was 

 also pointed out that the evidence available showed 

 that It was more prevalent among the upper than the 

 lower classes, and' that this probably coincided with a 

 lower index of nigrescence in the upper than in the 

 lower classes. 



In opening the discussion, Prof. Keith said that 

 Prof. Parsons's paper was of supreme importance to 

 all who were interested in the origin of the peoples of 

 this country. In his opinion, pigmentation was 

 probably the key to the problem, and Prof. Parsons's 

 new method of estimating nigrescence was a real 

 contribution to the study of the subject. His index 

 was, however, in a sense, an average, and must 

 therefore be used with caution. In referring to the 

 lack of correspondence between hair and eye colour, 

 he instanced the dark hair found in conjunction with 

 grey eyes in Wales, Ireland, and West Scotland — a 

 conjunction also occurring in Scandinavia. After 

 thirty years of observation, however, he himself was 

 still in doubt as to the difference between a Celt and 

 a Saxon, and felt it impossible to distinguish between 

 individuals from, say, Suffolk and Connaught. In 

 his view the basis of the population of these islands 

 was predominantly Nordic. 



Dr. Brownlea said that he considered the results 

 based upon the distinction of sex were not quite trust- 

 worthy. He held that six distinct races went to make 

 up the population of these islands, one of these being 

 a distinct red-haired race. 



Mr. H. Peake, while agreeing with Prof. Keith 

 that averages were untrustworthy, said that Prof. 

 Parsons's index was not quite an average, and in any 

 case it was the best method of dealing with observa- 

 tions which had been advanced so far. The conjunc- 

 tion of dark hair and light eyes was a puzzle. Was 

 it due to a tendency in the Mediterranean race towards 

 light eyes, or was it due to a fusion between the 

 Nordic and Mediterranean types? Certain characters 

 seemed to follow sex, and in cases where there had 

 been an immigrant male population intermarrymg 

 with the females of the country, the dominant 

 character of the male reappeared in the male Rne. 

 NO. 2643, VOL. 105] 



Prof. Parsons's results pointed to this, in that where 

 there was a considerable Nordic influence there were 

 wide sex differences; where Nordic influence was 

 small there was little difference between the sexes. 

 He pointed out that not all red-haired people were 

 alike in shape and colour. It had been suggested that 

 red was a variant of fair hair, e.g. in Scandinavia. 

 The older theory was that it was a border-line colour 

 between fair and black. In Ireland, Wales, and Scot- 

 land it might arise from a crossing of Nordic and 

 Mediterranean types. On the other hand, in the 

 North of England it might be a variant of fair hair, 

 as in Scandinavia. But even Scandinavia, he pointed 

 out, was not homogeneous ; light and dark types 

 occurred, and therefore in that country also red hair 

 might be due to contact. 



Dr. Shrubsall said that in his investigations of the 

 incidence of dark hair in town populations he had 

 found that the longer the town history of a family, 

 the darker the hair. He pointed out that the occur- 

 rence of red hair in the March country of Ireland, 

 Wales, and Scotland supported the view that it was 

 due to contact of light and dark "types. 



Dr. Stannus said that while investigating albinism 

 in Africa: he had found a large number of red-haired 

 individuals, but in these cases the pigment was always 

 found in solution. The problem was biochemical, 

 and, in his opinion, microscopioal examination was 

 essential to show whether individual cases were cases 

 of black hair in which the pigment had not been 

 thrown out in granular form. 



The chairrnan, in bringing the meeting to a close 

 pfter Prof. P'arsons had brieflv renlied. said that the 

 discussion had shown the desirability of a much wider 

 snrvev of the peoole than had hitherto been made. 

 The results wc>uld have an important bearinrf upon 

 such questions as the relation' between health and 

 ra^e. He hoped that the Government might be 

 induced to help in this great undertaking. 



Army Hygiene and its Lessons.^ 



By Lt.-Gen. ,Sir Thomas Goodwin, K.C.B. 



UNTIL quite recent years it has never been 

 sufficiently recognised that a very large pro- 

 portion of Army medical effort should be directed 

 towards the prevention of disease. The fact that in 

 all wars in the past more men died from disease 

 than from enemy action appears to have been accepted 

 more or less with resignation, and regarded as 

 inevitable. During the later years of the nineteenth 

 century the increasing advances in science and 

 our more exact knowledge regarding the aetiology and 

 transmission of infective diseases led many medica 

 officers to attempt to create barriers against r^e spread 

 of disease by known paths, but there was a lamentable 

 lack of co-ordinated effort. 



Towards the close of the eighteenth century we 

 begin to glean something in the nature of figures 

 regarding sidcness in armies in the field. _ I n^ 1792 

 the allied Austrian and Russian armies were in Cham- 

 pagne • they commenced their retreat on September 30, 

 and by the end of October had evacuated France, and 

 during that short month, without any considerable 

 fighting, thev lost 25,000 men, or more than one- 

 fourth of their number, every village being filled with 

 dead and dying. xt„,^ 



Accurate figures are unobtainable regarding Napo- 

 leon's campaign in 1812, but we learn that in June 

 1812, he crossed the Niemen with a magmficent army 



1 From thre. Chadwick Lectures delivered °P..^^f'-'^^^„Vie' ^.l^^^ng 

 entitled ' ' Army Hygiene prior to the Recent War, Army Hygiene during 

 the Great War," and " Army Hygiene in the Future. 



