192 IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA 



gists, it doesn't. It only gives in some cases the 

 greenish variable tinge I have mentioned, but 

 nothing approaching to the decided greens of 

 Broca's tables. Given an eye with the right de- 

 gree of translucency in the membrane and a very 

 thin deposit of yellow pigment spread equally 

 over the surface; the result would be a perfectly 

 green iris. Nature, however, does not proceed 

 quite in this way. The yellow pigment varies 

 greatly in hue; it is muddy yellow, brown, or 

 earthy color, and it never spreads itself uniformly 

 over the surface, but occurs in patches grouped 

 about the pupil and spreads in dull rays or lines 

 and spots, so that the eye which science says 

 "ought to be called green" is usually a very dull 

 blue-gray, or brownish-blue, or clay color, and in 

 some rare instances shows a changeable greenish 

 hue. 



In the remarks accompanying the Report of the 

 Anthropometric Committee of the British As- 

 sociation for 1881 and 1883, it is said that green 

 eyes are more common than the tables indicate r 

 and that eyes that should properly be called green, 

 owing to the popular prejudice against that term, 

 have been recorded as gray or some other color. 



Does any such prejudice exist? or is it necessary 

 to go about with the open manual in our hands 

 to know a green eye when we see one f No doubt 

 the "popular prejudice" is supposed to have its 

 origin in Shakespeare's description of jealousy as 

 a green-eyed monster ; but if Shakespeare has any 



