PIGMENTATION IN RELATION TO SELECTION 
AND TO ANTHROPOMETRIC CHARACTERS. 
By A. M. CARR SAUNDERS, M.A. 
I. Pigmentation and Disease. 
Introduction. The problem of the relation between pigmentation and disease 
has in recent years commanded a certain amount of attention ; but, as yet, very 
little work has been done which has helped materially to elucidate the problem. 
In a recent number of Biometrika a memoir by Macdonald* deals with this question; 
the introduction to the memoir gives a summary of previous work in this subject, 
and the theories which have been put forward with regard to it. Readers of this 
summary will see how much of what is actually laid down about the relation between 
pigmentation and disease consists of little more than casual observations and vague 
suggestions. One theory that has gained currency is that the dark haired type is 
becoming more common in towns, and that this is due to the elimination of the 
lighter stocks owing to their greater susceptibility to disease. It was with the 
hope of bringing forward evidence to test such rather vague theories that the 
present work was undertaken. The problem is part of the larger subject — the 
action of natural selection on the human race. About this we know at present 
lamentably little. It has been shown that the great majority of deaths are 
selective. But we are almost entirely ignorant of the precise mode in which 
selection is influencing the race. 
There exist some further contributions to the subject which are not mentioned 
by Macdonald. Shrubsall-j- in a memoir of 1909 finds that tuberculosis is more 
frequent in dark types, while the onset is earlier among the blondes. In another 
paper | he comes to the conclusion that blonde traits are associated with rheumatism, 
heart-disease, tonsilitis and osteo-arthritis, and that brunette traits are associated 
with nervous diseases, tuberculosis and malignant disease. Pfitzner§ found a 
marked increase of black hair with increasing age ; the increase seems to be too 
* D. Macdonald, Biometrika, Vol. vm. p. 13. 
t F. C. Shrubsall, Proc. Roy. Soc. Med. 1909, Vol. n. 
J F. C. Shrubsall, St Bartholomew Hospital Reports, Vol. xxxix. 
§ Pfitzner, Schwalbe's Zeitschrift fur Morphologic, Bd. I. 
