Abstract
Eyebrows and Eyelashes in Man.—A preliminary report on a study of the eyebrows and eyelashes in man, a subject not hitherto treated in anthropological literature, is published by Prof. V. Suk and Dr. F. Rozpr′m in Pub. No. 142 of the Faculty of Science of the Masaryk University, Brno. The study deals specifically with form and colour and the question of heredity. Eyebrows are divided into 11 types according to form, which varies extensively. Of 470 cases the greatest number are classified as ‘spreading’, those which are evenly formed on each side occurring much more rarely, 96 cases of the latter as against 157 of the former. The ‘even’ occurs 20 times as frequently in women. ‘Peaked’, rising in the middle, is rare, occurring 12 times only.‘ Narrowing’, in which the eyebrows are thick at the medial end and narrow towards the distal side, seems to be a feminine form, occurring three times as often in women. A whorl running outward from the nose is also feminine. There is no correlation between form and colour. In the eyelashes the upper are more characteristic than the lower. The long curved eyelashes occur 150 times in a total of 470, being present twice as often in children under sixteen years of age. It is an infantile form, for this type of eyelash is shed at puberty and often replaced by a different type. It is generally dark brown to black. Short and straight occur equally often in men and women, but never in childhood. Short-curved is least represented, and occurs most frequently in men, never in children. Two apparently abnormal types were observed, one bent inward toward the eye, the other long and straight but hooked at the end. Inheritance of these characters having been neglected, there are no data for comparison, but one family tree shows interesting characters. Form and colour are not inherited together, but the inheritance of form is clearly to be seen.
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Research Items. Nature 129, 134–136 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129134a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/129134a0