874 REPORT—1899; 
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18. 
The following Reports and Papers were read :— 
1. Final Report on the Ethnographical Survey of the United Kingdom. 
See Reports, p. 493. 
2. On Recent Hthnographical Work in Scotland. 
By J. Gray, BSc. 
Preliminary observations on the physical characteristics of the people of East 
Aberdeenshire, begun in 1895 by the Buchan Field Club, were summarised in a 
paper at the Ipswich Meeting of this Association (1895, p. 831), and published more 
fully in the ‘ T'ransactions’ of the Buchan Field Club. 
A pigmentation survey of the whole of the school-children of East Aberdeen- 
shire has since been completed, chiefly through the organising ability of Mr. 
Tocher, the Secretary of the Buchan Field Club, and the generous and gratuitous 
co-operation of the school teachers. Returns were received between October 
1895 and November 1897, from over ninety schools, comprising nearly 14,000 
children. 
The scheme of colours for hair and eyes was practically the same as that of 
Dr. Beddoe; but his two darkest classes for hair were amalgamated into one. 
Comparison with Dr. Virchow’s survey of German school children would, however, 
have been facilitated if blue eyes had been separated from other light eyes. 
The Pigmentation of the school children (with that of adults added for com- 
parison) is shown in the following table of average results :— 
Hair Eyes 
Fair Red Brown | Dark Light | Medium| Dark 
| EE ee es) es eee 
Children, total | 25:3 7:0 465 21:2 41:0 35:0 24:0 
54 Boys...| 23:6 68 48-2 21:4 416 35°8 22°6 
» Girls. | 26°9 73 44-7 21:1 40°6 33'8 25°6 
Adults, total . 9°5 57 64:1 20°7 25°4 48°6 26:0 
» Males. 9°5 5°6 66:2 18:7 26°3 50°7 22°8 
» Females . 9°8 6:4 54:°8 29:0 21°6 39:0 39°4 
A study of this table reveals several noteworthy facts :— 
(1) About 155 per cent. of the fair-haired children become brown-haired 
adults—almost exactly the same percentage that Virchow found to become 
brunette in Germany, and about 15 per cent. light-eyed become medium or 
dark-eyed. 
(2) Between boys and girls the percentage of dark hair is practically equal, 
and the girls have only 3 per cent. excess of dark eyes; but adult females have 
11 per cent. more dark hair than adult males, and 163 per cent. more dark eyes. 
The darkening of the females is therefore post-natal. Ripley points out the same 
excessive pigmentation of the females among the Jews, and also in regions like 
Alsace, where a blonde race has invaded a brunette country. 
A comparison with the continental districts whence, according to tradition and 
history, we have derived a large element in our population, namely, Schleswig- 
Holstein, Liineberg, and Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the reputed original seats of the 
Angles and Saxons, is shown in the following table : 1— 
* The Aberdeenshire ‘ blonde-type’ (including fair hair with light grey eyes, as 
well as with blue) is rather larger than Virchow’s (which includes only the blue 
eyes), but the ‘ brunette types’ are practically the same. 
