ON THE FUTURE EXTINCTION OF BLUE EYES.

Southland Times, Volume 3, Issue 101, 14 October 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

ON THE FUTURE EXTINCTION OF BLUE EYES.

(From the Corn-lull Magazine). To the many fervent admirers of blue eye?, the possibility, nay, the probability of black eyes one day having undivided empire cannot be a pleasant suggestion. Even those who loudly -^proclaim the superior splendour of dark eyes may" hear of such a prophecy with misgiving. Tastes, we know, admit of no dispute, and we also know how incessantly tbey : are disputed. On the color of hair and eyes the dispute is animated. Yet nature, in spite of a seeming impart:ality in her acts, has a decided preference for black, and, if we are to trust a physiologist, has decreed their ultimate empire, if not the final extinction of blue, This is not pleasant news. Let us hope it is nottrue. Even as a variety — apart from the preferences of individuals — one would like to preserve] all the shades of blonde hair (except, perhaps, the whitey-broioii), and all the tints of%rey or blue eyes. Without whispering a word of treason against the lustrous splendour of black, we may own the magical thrill which responds to the tender violet, or the thoughtful grey. And if what we have to <*anounce be true, if nature really carries out her | threat, and extinguishes the'fair complexions, we must pity our remote descendents, in spite of their rich inheri- | tance of civilisation which will make I them regard us as beggarly pioneers, they will have the drawback of living j under the dynasty of universal black : J mnnarchiamonochromatica ! Such is the conclusion we draw from the facts re- J corded by Dr. Bergholz, of Venezuela, in the Arc/tiv fxlr Anatomic. They arj interesting enough to be laid before our readers. Observations of a loose empirical kind have more than once been directed to the gradual diminution of blue eyes in certain districts, where formerly they had been abundant; but such observations, even if accuratively tabulated, and not merely relying on the approximate estimates of casual remark, would be of small value, so long as they were insulated from the probable causes of such diminution. So many causes might co-operate in such a result, that unless this result were directly and exclusively connected with some one known cause, it would l'emain an unfertile remark. Boforo any proposition respecting tho future fate of fair complexions can wear a scientific aspect, it, must base itself on tlio proved facts of

physiological inheritance. That we dp inherit from our parents "and ancestors "every physical peculiarity wo exhjli;, is a fact now beyond dispute. •_ In all thinking minds it is now firmly fixed that nothing occurs in this world, " by accident," everything issues from inexorable layv. " However strange andseemingly capricious may be the forms and features of man, their dispositions and their aptitudes, howVver widely children of the same nursery may differ among each other, hot .one of these^ peculiarities on which the differences rest, but owes its origin ; to' the law- of inheritance. From . parents, from grandparents, from the race", and from the primeval stock, there flows streams of influence which determine, by a composition of forces, every detail of feature, every degree of talent, every predisposition to disease, and which mould the plastic organisation into its individuality. These influences may be too complex and subtle to be uniformly appreciated ; but they exist ; they are inevitable; they are more appreciable. The discovery of the laws of inheritance is the problem for future science. At present we have, only been able to discover that the laws exist, and to collect some of their manifestations in particular directions. Here, then, we have a scientific basis. If all our physical peculiarities are inherited — if they all come to us from our parents and aucestors, sometimes obviously from the father, and sometimes obviously fro:n the mother, and sometimes obviously from the mingling of both — clearly the peculiarity of our complexions affords a striking illustration of the general law, all the more conspicuous and less liable to dispute because die facts are more easily recognisable. Whether a child has inherited the features, moral or physical, ' of one parent will often be disputable, because the appreciation of such features may be unequivocal ; but there can be no dispute as to whether the eyes are dark or light. Once agree as t,o the terms of the definition, and declare that by dark hair we exclude all shades of brown, and by dark eyes we exclude all shades of blue or grey, and the facts admit of no equivoque. Hence the investigations of Dr Bergholz have a peculiar value j and had they been more extensive, would have furnished very striking results; but, as they are, they point to curious reflections, one of these being the inevitable disappearance of blue eyes at some future date. For the sake of compendious brevity, wo shall reduce the results of Dr Bei'gholz's researches under these two classes ; A, in which the fathers were dark, and the mothers fair; B, in which the fathers were fair, and the mothers dark. A. Fourteen families were examined in this class. They numbered fortyeight children. Of these forty-eight, there were twenty-nine with dark eyes, and onl}' twenty- one with dark hair. This seeming discrepancy is owing to two causes^ one bein^ the curious fact, that on an average, the influence of the father predominates in the color of the eyes, while the mother's influence predominates in the hair; the other cause being that hair, which ultimately becomes black, is, in childhood, often brown. Taking the color of the eyes, as the least variable standard, we s-e-e twenty-nine out of forty-eight are dark. B. Nine families were examined in this class ; but even here, although the mothers Were dark, the prepondeiance is in favor of dark eyes. They had thirty-seven children • of these, twentyone had dark eyes and seventeen dark hair. Thus, Out of eighty-five children issuing from contrasted parents, the predominance of the dark over the fair is inths ratio of one hundred to seventy. So marked a predominance must, • the author thinks, in time ultimately extinguish the fair. Intermarry how they will, the swarthy parents will gradually extend their hereditary predominance. It is no objection to such a conclusion that dark parents occasionally have blonde children; for.blo.ide parents also occasionally have dark children. With reference to the distribution of color between the sexes, Class A gives twenty-eight sons and twenty daughtere ; Class B twenty sons and seven- ' teen daughters, thus divided : — Class A. Class C. Dirk Hair. Dark Eyes. Dark Hair. Dark Eyes. 1 Sons ... 13 ... ]fi Sons ... (5 ... 11 Daughters 8 ... 13 Daughters 11 ... 10 21 29 17 21 Light Hair. Light Ejps. Light Hair. Light Eyes. Sons ... 15 ... H Boiis ... 12 ... S Dau<rlilcrsl2 ... 7 Daughters 8 „ 7 27 19 20 15 Now, although it would require a far more extensive induction to warrant our author's conclusion, yet, as a begin- ! uing these figures are interesting. They show, moreover, a slight predo- | minance of the male over the female ! influence. The result must not too hastily be generalised ; a more extensive induction might show that what here seems due to the influence of sex was due to other causes. Those who have studied the laws of inheritance, are far from unauimaus respecting the influence of sex ; indeed, opinions diametrically opposite each show an array of striking facts. Popular prejudice, indeed, attributes to mothers the predominating influence in the production of genius; as we see in the dictum, that "all remarkable men have remarkable mothers." This 13 somewhat in accordance with Dryden's couplet : — No father can infuse or wit or grace ; A mother comes across, and mars the raco: which is only partially true, and helps to explain why the children of great men arc not often great ; bu.t the couplet would be equally true if tho relative positions of father aud mother wcro

transposed. The fact is that both parents influence th-i offspring, and therefore either parent -may mar the transmission of "genius. .With to-'the colour-of hair and eyes, r h6wever, it seems that there are a predominating tendency in favoFof the'dark, and small as this js-rone hundred to seventy — in course of time it must end;in the^ final extinction of the fair. Happily ,"~ that time is immensely remote.