Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 84.djvu/146

142 the relationship between the pigmentation of the hair and eyes of the individual and his mental characteristics, his bent towards criminality, his health and his capacity for survival has received the widest discussion.

The relation of pigment to selection has been discussed chiefly from two points of view—that of urban selection and that of susceptibility

As early as 1904 Pearson, working with Pfitzner's data for Lower ElsassAlsace [sic], suggested that the high correlation between age and pigmentation in the case of post mortem cases is more nearly explained by a selective death rate of the lighter types than by the assumption of a darkening with age alone. In the same year appeared a most suggestive paper by Strumball, who attempted by the comparison of hospital censuses with the general English population to ascertain whether susceptibility to various diseases is dependent upon the anthropometric characteristics of the individuals affected. He concluded that blond features are associated with acute rheumatism, heart disease, tonsilitis and osteo-arthritis, and that the brunette traits are associated with nervous diseases, tuberculosis and malignant diseases.

MacDonald finds that for scarlet fever, diphtheria, measles and whooping cough among Glasgow school children recuperative power is