D. Macdonald 
17 
an index of vitality. He sums up by stating that the tendency of present know- 
ledge certainly points in the direction of some relation between pigmentation and 
general physiological and mental vigour. On the other hand, it cannot be forgotten 
that many conquering and ruling races have been fair, and have subdued races 
which have been dark. To mention only a few, the Goths, Angles, Norsemen and 
Saxons, were all dominant races in their time. 
From the observation of a million soldiers of mixed nationalities in the American 
Federal Army, Baxter* formed the opinion that although nations of superior stature 
exhibit a majority of blondes, yet in detail among themselves the dark-complexioned 
exhibit a slight superiority in stature and girth of chest over the fair complexioned. 
He concludes that stature depends on race and not upon complexion, and that 
it does not appear that any recognizable relation exists between circumference of 
chest and stature when complexion is made the basis of classification. On the 
other handf, when the various and numerous diseases and injuries for which 
recruits were rejected are considered in regard to complexion, he finds that almost 
without exception men of light complexion were more affected than those of dark. 
He states that, in regard to this almost invariable rule applying to complexion, the 
fact is submitted without comment. Ripley j gives Baxter as his authority for 
stating that the brunette* type, on the whole, opposed a greater resistance to 
disease and offered more hope of recovery from injuries in the field. BoudinS 
states that, in the French army which invaded Russia, soldiers having a dark 
complexion, from the southern parts of Europe, withstood the intense cold better 
than those with lighter complexions from the north. He remarks that this fact is 
contrary to the opinion generally held. 
Darwin|| states that the colour of the skin and hair is sometimes correlated in 
a surprising manner with a complete immunity from the action of certain vegetable 
poisons and from the attacks of certain parasites. After discussing the immunity 
of the negro from the yellow fever so destructive in tropical America, and from the 
fatal intermittent fevers that prevail in parts of the African coast, he says that it 
is a mere conjecture that this immunity is in any degree correlated with the 
colour of the skin. The conjecture, however, seemed to him not improbable, and 
he obtained permission to transmit tables to the surgeons of the various regiments 
on foreign service asking for particulars of the colour of the hair of all the men in 
their regiments and also of those who suffered from the various tropical fevers. In 
this way he hoped to find out whether any relation existed between the colour of 
the hair and constitutional liability to tropical diseases. Unfortunately he received 
no returns, and at present there exists great divergence of opinion as to whether 
* Baxter: Statistics, Medical and Anthropological, of the Provost Marshal General's Bureau, 
Washington, 1875, Vol. n. p. 24. 
t Baxter: Ibid., Vol. i. p. 72. 
X Ripley : Races of Europe, p. 558. The latter statement I cannot find in the pages referred to by 
Bipley, nor indeed in any of Baxter's records. 
§ Boudin : Traite de Geographic Medicate, Tom. I. p. 406. 
|| Darwin : Descent of Man, p. 193. 
Biometrika vm 3 
