Karl Pearson 
349 
not segregate, but that in a mixed population all tints according to the degree of 
mixture were to be found. This view of the matter appeared to be that of men 
who had long resided among mixed races, and had become axiomatic with the 
West Indies courts of justice when determining cases of doubtful paternity. The 
rule of a court of justice is generally one of practical experience in human affairs, 
but of course we cannot in science take it as conclusive evidence of the absence 
of segregation. 
At first sight the question appears to be capable of an easy answer. If L repre- 
sents a light skin and D a dark skin, we shall term the pure races {LL) and (DD), 
and the problem turns on whether segregation occurs when we have the mating : 
{LD) X (LD). 
Is the result {LL) + 2 {LD) + {DD) ? Now without any hypothesis as to the 
nature of the skin of {LD), we ought when mulattos or Eurasians cross among 
themselves to find 25 p.c. of their offspring at least white skinned, and so readily 
distinguishable. The problem, however, is not so easily answerable, and for the 
following reasons : 
(a) There is a considerable range of variability of pigmentation in the white 
races, and an equal range of variability in the dark races, which may also be said to 
have their "blonds" and "brunettes," although what the negroes term a 'fair' 
negro, would often be called by the European a black. 
{h) Among the Eurasians in the populous parts of India an inquiry as to 
parentage is much resented. It is possible to examine the children in the Eurasian 
schools and often to observe their parents, but the fundamental question as to the 
parents' parents, the original {LL) and {DD), is generally unanswered. 
(c) In the West Indies where the race differences are less acute, we are met 
by the difficulty that 60 p.c. of the children in some islands are born out of 
wedlock. Many mistakes in paternity are made, and colour as I have indicated is 
one of the definite factors in deciding this matter in a court of law. 
Now I do not pretend to have settled the problem for either Eurasian or 
mulatto strains, but I have endeavoured to set on foot inquiries in the Eurasian 
schools in India and among medical men in the West Indies which may some day 
help to answer the problem. This note only proposes to consider some communi- 
cations I have had with a correspondent in the West Indies. He is a medical 
man, who, except for his period of training in London, has spent his whole life 
in the West Indies and knows its people and their ways very intimately. He 
has most kindly provided me with a series of photographs illustrating some of 
the mixed types. It is very hard to indicate the various shades of colour unless 
all the subjects are taken on precisely the same plate, with the same exposure 
and the same illumination. I am having further observations made with 
von Luschan's skin mosaics, but I think the present photographs will suffice to 
indicate that there is a real gradation in the types. 
