RECORD OF FAMILY FACULTIES. 



be presumed that the children suffered from want of nourishment both 

 before and immediately after their births. 



(7) Height, when adult. This affords some confirmatory indication of 

 race ; it may also give a clue to differences in nurture in the same family, 

 and should be considered in conjunction with the subject of the last 

 paragraph. Whenever measurements have been made and recorded at 

 the time, they are of course the most desirable data ; it should be 

 stated whether they were made with the shoes on or off But when 

 there is no other guide beyond what memory affords of the general 

 appearance, such terms as tall, very tall, middle height, &c., must be used 

 instead. Any accessible facts concerning the stature at different ages 

 should be recorded. 



Colour of Hair when adult. Experience shows that tlie medium 

 tints are not recorded in a uniform manner, but that persons are apt to 

 consider the medium tint in their locality as that of England generally. 

 Thus the same hair would be differently named bj' a man in Devonshire 

 and by one in Glasgow ; a tint that would seem light to the first would 

 seem dark to the second. The hair of children darkens considerably 

 as they grow older, even up to the time when it begins to turn grey. 

 The colour of such locks of hair as may have been preserved as 

 mementos is apt to fade and those that have been worked into bracelets 

 and lockets are usually coloured artificially. Much judgment has in 

 consequence to be exercised before making these returns. Decided cases 

 of dark and of fair hair and eyes, such as " hair dark, eyes hazel or 

 black," or " hair light, eyes blue or gray," are more exempt from these 

 sources of error, and are proportionately valuable. 



The Colour of the Eyes is more persistent throughout life than that 

 of the hair. 



The colour of the hair is of interest in connection with the question 

 which has been raised whether the Ene;lish race as a whole is not 

 becoming more dark-haired. There is no d priori improbability in the 

 fact. The recent and rapid changes in English habits must have caused 

 certain sub-types to prevail in the struggle for existence, that were 

 repressed before, and it is of interest to know what these sub-types are. 

 The colour of the hair of animals is often found to be intimately correlated 

 with their power or incapacity to thrive under certain conditions, and it 

 may well be the same in the case of man. Again, it is undoubtedly the fact 



.7 



