EYEBROWS AND EYELASHES

Waipa Post, Volume 44, Issue 3183, 28 May 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

EYEBROWS AND EYELASHES

AN INTERESTING SURVEY. A preliminary report on a study of the eyebrows and eyelashes in man, a subject not hitherto treated in anthropological literature, is published by Professor V. Suk and Dr F. Rozprym (says Nature). The study deals specially with form and colour and the question of heredity. Eyebrows are divided into eleven types, according to form, which varies extensively. 0f'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 opposed tio 157 of the former. The “ even ” occur 20 times as frequently in women. “ Peaked,” rising in the middle, are 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 n'ose 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 darkbrown to black. Short and straight occur most frequently in men and women, but never in childhood. The short-curved variety is least represented, and occurs most frequently in men, but never in children. Two apparently normal types were observed, one bent inward toward the eyes, 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 chai’acters. Form and colour are not inherited together, but the inheritance of form is clearly to be seen.