38 HEREDITY IN RELATION TO EUGENICS 



conceivable that they might have mental and moral qual- 

 ities as good and typically Caucasian as he had. Just as 

 perfect white skin color can be extracted from the hybrid, 

 so may other Caucasian physical and mental qualities be 

 extracted and a typical Caucasian arise out of the mixture. 

 However, this result will occur only in the third, or later, 

 hybrid generation and the event will not be very common. 



Albinism. This is an extreme case of blondness — all 

 pigment being lost from skin, hair and eyes. The method 

 of inheritance resembles that of eye color. When both 

 parents lack pigment all offspring are likewise devoid of 

 pigment. When one parent only is an albino and the other 

 is unrelated the children are all pigmented. Whenever 

 albinos occur from two normals the proportion of these 

 albinos approaches the ideal and expected condition of 25 

 per cent (Fig. 14). 



Albinism is not a desirable peculiarity, despite the beauty 

 of complexion and hair, because the lack of pigment in the 

 retina makes it hard to bear strong light. Albinos may 

 avoid transmitting albinism by marrjdng unrelated, pig- 

 mented persons. Pigmented persons belonging to albinic 

 strains must avoid marrying cousins, even pigmented ones, 

 because both parents might, in that case, have albinic germ 

 cells and produce one child in four albinic. Albino com- 

 munities, of which there are several in the United States 

 are inbred communities; but not all inbred communities 

 contain albinos.^ 



5. Stature 



The inheritance of stature has long been a subject of 

 study. It has great interest both because it is easily deter- 

 mined and because it has a great racial range, namely, 



^ This matter is discussed more fully in the "American Naturalist," Decem- 

 ber, 1910. 



