No. 528] SKIN PIGMENTATION IN MAN 723 



seems to be that Pearson would be content with "calcu- 

 lating the chances" and, because the ratio was small, in- 

 sisting that the three stocks could not all have albinism 

 recessive. Such a method of procedure is, I fear, all too 

 characteristic of the "careful work" which alone, ac- 

 cording to its editor, is admitted to the pages of Bio- 

 metrika. 2Q Of course the facts are that we have here no 

 data for calculating the required chances. In the first 

 place, the term "not related" has only a relative signifi- 

 cance in the statistics of human qualities; it usually 

 means not first cousin or nearer relative, more rarely 

 extends to second cousin, or at the outside, to third 

 cousin. And yet two persons of the grade of tenth 

 cousin may easily carry recessive an albinic condition 

 derived from a common source. A fairer question 

 would be, what are the chances that a woman shall 

 marry in succession two men related between the grades 

 of third and tenth cousin, supposing, further, all throe 

 come from the same rural district, long settled and rela- 

 tively stable? T think the conditions that Pearson does 

 not cite might easily render the chances several million 

 to one in favor of the three persons being less distantly 

 related than tenth cousin. An actual illustration of this 

 condition of affairs is shown in the D. G. V. and P. W. 

 families. The three family names represented by D., 

 G. and V. occur again and again in this family, as the 

 pedigree table shows. Some of the consorts are recog- 

 nized as "first cousins"; but in most other cases they 

 are stated to be "unrelated." If the inquiry is pressed 

 the admission is made "were perhaps distantly." One 

 may "calculate the chances" that in the same mountain 

 community, of perhaps .'!()() inhabitants, who are all 

 segregated by color from the surrounding population, 

 two persons of the same name (uncommon outside the 

 community) are absolutely unrelated, or unrelated out- 

 side the degree of seventh cousin. But even in a flat 



