EYE COLOR AND HAIR COLOR IN MAN. 



55 



The effect of age upon the color of hair is so great that any 

 conclusions based on the hair color of children as compared with 

 their parents is of comparatively little value. The color of hair 

 changes most rapidly in early hfe, but there is a considerable 

 change even after sixteen years of age. We have made a rough 

 estimate of the change by compiling the relative frequencies of 

 the three most common colors in children under sixteen, in the 

 members of the third generation in our data over sixteen, in the 

 parents and in the grandparents. In children under sixteen 

 black forms 9.8 per cent, of the individuals. In the members of 

 the third generation over sixteen it forms approximately 20 per 

 cent. In the parents and grandparents it forms in each case 39.2 

 per cent. Brown is less frequent under sixteen. It is most 

 common in the children over sixteen, but in the parents and 

 grandparents it is less common on account of so many develop- 

 ing into black. The light browns steadily decrease in number 



Table Showing the Relative Frequencies of the Three Most Common 

 Varieties of Hair Color at Different Ages : 



Similar Table Compiled from the Data of the Davenports. 



with age. We have made a similar tabulation from the data 

 given by the Davenports, although, since the ages of the children 

 were not given, all of the third generation are treated together. 

 In order to make the results more nearly comparable the browns 

 and dark browns of the Davenports are classed as browns, and 

 the light browns and yellowish browns as light browns. Their 

 data show that black is over three times as prevalent in the 

 parents as in the children while light brown is over twice as 

 common in the children as in the parents or grandparents. The 

 proportions of yellow, tow and flaxen are relatively greater in the 



