Abstract
PROF. LANKESTER (p. 245) has alluded to the dark pigment in the skin of tropical man as “conceivably … not in itself a useful, that is, a life-preserving or progeny-ensuring character, but merely the accompaniment of a power of resisting malarial germs …” residing in the leucocytes. This hypothetical case, used by Prof. Lankester for illustrating his argument, has been seriously entered upon by Mr. Thiselton-Dyer (p. 293), with the conclusion that “it does not follow that epidermal pigment is useless because one explanation of it seems to fail.”
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WETTERHAN, D. The Utility of Specific Characters. Nature 54, 342 (1896). https://doi.org/10.1038/054342a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/054342a0
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