162 SUPPLEMENTAL HISTORY OP MAN. 



pletely ascertained that they have beards, but weak 

 and imperfect, and that the practice of exterminat- 

 ing them is general. 



The genuine Negroes have very little beard or 

 growth of hair over the body. But the South-Sea 

 islanders are by no means deficient in these ex- 

 crescences. 



An analogy similar to that between the hair and 

 skin exists between the latter and the iris of the 

 eye. New born children in Europe have generally 

 light eyes and hair, and both gradually darken in 

 those of dark complexion. 



In old persons as the hair turns grey the eye loses 

 a portion of its colour. In the albino there is an 

 entire deficiency of proper colouring matter, so that 

 the iris has a reddish hue from the colour of the 

 blood in the capillaries. The same sympathetic 

 variations in the skin, hair, and eyes are also obser- 

 vable in other animals. 



The principal colours of the human eye are blue, 

 passing to greyish in the lighter tints, a sort of ob- 

 scure orange, a kind of middle tint between blue 

 and orange, sometimes very green in red-haired 

 persons; and lastly, brown, verging to hazel on the 

 one side, and black on the other. To these the 

 reddish eye of the albino may be added. 



These varieties occur constantly in individuals of 

 the same race and family. Sometimes they are 

 confined to particular tribes of the same nation. 

 The Gothlanders of Sweden are described with 

 light hair and greyish eyes. The Finlanders with 



