The sea coast echo., 1905-05-13
BLONDES MAY DISAPPEAR.
STATISTICS SHOW CITY LIFE EN-
GOuRAGES THE BRUNETTE.
The sIue-Eyed, Golden-Haired, and
Light t-CompIexioned Variety of the
Human Race is in Course of Exter
nninaticn.


Human Race is in Course of Exter-
minaticn.
The somewhat startling statement
uas been made tnat the blue-eyed,
goIden-haired, and light-complexioned
variety of the human race is in the
course of extinction, and that, within
4 few more generations, blondes are
likely to become SO rare in the worlds
population that they may be locked
upon as curiosities, somewhat as al
binos are today. The blonde type has
been so often chosen by artists and
poets to represent their noblest con-
captions of human beauty that no one
can regard even the bare suggestion
Of its extinction without dismay-
Moreover, some Of the worlds great
est races and many Of its most mas
terful personalities have belonged to
this type. and its admirers have some
times gone so far as TO aver that light
compilations, and in particular light
co,ored eyes, are the favored livery of
The highest genius.
This is undoubtedly an extreme and
untenabIe claim, yet it can not be de-
MED that history shows an extraor-
dinary number of men and women of
the first rank in all the higher fields
Of intellect who pOss 2ssed the char
acteristic marks of the blonde, and
this not only in countries where the
light type prevails, but also in lands
like Italy, where the general COM
)Iexion of the population is dark.
To be told, then, upon the alleged
authority Of science, that this golden
race of mankind, so highly favored
and so universally admired, gives in
dications of vanishing from our plan
ct is indeed a cause for astonishment
and discomposure. Every one imme-
diately demands: "Is it true?"-
What basis is there for such an as
sertion?"
During the recent meeting of the
British Association for the Advance
ment of Science, at Cambridge, this
matter of the relative disappearance
Of blondes was most Interestingly dis
cussed in the Section of Anthropol-
ogy. under the presidency of Henry
Balfour, and a very strong feeling OF
regret, partly sentimental, was eHhib-
tied over the outlook.
It was shown, for instance, by DR..
f. c.. ShrubsaIl, from comparison OF
the physical characteristics of hospi-
tai patients, that blondes suffer more
than brunetteS from certain diseases,
especially those Of rheumatic char
acter. But far more important was
his statement that blondes are more
subject. than are their rivals to the
diseases of childhood. To this fact
evidently must be attributed their al
legged gradual disappearance. 1t is
children's diseases that most swell
he death roll everywhere, and any
class of the population specially sub
iect to such diseases must necessarily
fall off in numbers in comparison with
another, or rival, class which is COM
paratively immune to the same dis
orders.
1t was shown that this particular
liability to disease in childhood so far
blondes have in being less subject
than brunettes to tuberculosis and
nervous disorders that in cities
where childhood's diseases are most
fatal, en- account of overcroWding and
unsanitary conditiOns-the relative
number of blondes is certainly de-
creasfng, and that Of brunettes in
Creasing.
After the age Of twenty or twenty
five, there is a tendency to redress
the balance, because then tubercolo-
sis and nervous troubles begin to re-
duce the number Of brunettes. but
this is not sufficient, by any means,
to restore the relative numerical rank
Of the blondes, on account OF the
greater fatality of the cniIdren's dis
eases which nave d2cimated them at
the beginning.
The president, Mr.. Balfour, pointed
out that the necessary consequence
of all this is that town life encourages
a brunette population and in altering
tne inherited characteristics of the
English people at the expense of the
traits which they owe to their blonde
ancestry. Moreover, the constant in
fiux of the country population to the
cities tends to swell, in the end, the
numerical superiority Of the brunet-
tes.
Something of q similar kind has
been noted on the continent OF Eu-
rope. In fact, if the asserted special
tendency of blondes to rheumatic and
childrens diseases is inherent in their
constitution, the result must be the
same everywhere and can not be con-
fined to the British Isles.
AS to what the precise defects in
the blonde constitution are which rem
der people of that complexion more
subject than brunettes to children's
disorders. the evidence is not clear.
Assuming that the defects exist, it
may be recalled that the most fatal
and characteristic of ch!ldhood's dis
eases are those now recognized as or
germ origin, from which it might be
inferred that the blood corpuscles of
blondes are less able to resist the at
tacks of micro-organisms than are
those of their harder darh-skinned
rivals. Some physicians have averred
that blondes are constitutionally
anaemic, and possess less stamina
than brunettes, but all would probably
not agree in this view. AS the mat
ter stands, 1t would appear, as Mr..
Dalfour has intimated, that crowded
city life is the chief foe of the blonde.