From the analysis of a hundred male cases in Madras, in which enquiries were made with reference to the married state, in individuals ranging in age from 21 to 50, with an average age of 33, I learn that 74 were married; that 141 male and 130 female children had been born to them; and that 26, whose average age was 25, were unmarried. The limits of age of the men at the time of marriage were 32 and 16; of their wives 25 and 13. The greatest number of children born to a single pair was 10. In only three cases, out of the seventy-four, was there no issue. In fifty cases, which were examined, of married men, with an average age of 34, 207 children had been born, of whom 91 had died, for the most part in early life, from ‘fever’ and other causes.

The racial position of Eurasians, and the proportion of black blood in their veins, are commonly indicated, not by the terms mulatto, quadroon, octoroon, sambo (or zambo), etc., but in fractions of a rupee. The European pure breed being represented by Rs. 0–0–0, and the Native pure breed by 16 annas (= 1 rupee), the resultant cross is, by reference to colour and other tests, gauged as being half an anna in the rupee (faint admixture of black blood), approaching European types; eight annas (half and half); fifteen annas (predominant admixture of black blood), approaching Native types, etc.

The Eurasian body being enveloped in clothes, it was not till they stripped before me, for the purpose of anthropometry, that I became aware how prevalent is the practice of tattooing among the male members of the community. Nearly all the hundred and thirty men (of the lower classes) whom I examined were, in fact, tattooed to a greater or less extent on the breasts, upper arms, forearms, wrists, back of the hands, or shoulders. The following varied selection of devices in blue, with occasional red, is recorded in my case-book:—

Anchor. Ballet girl with flag, stars and stripes. Bracelets round wrists. Burmese lady carrying umbrella. Bird. Bugles. Conventional artistic devices. Cross and anchor. Crown and flags. Crossed swords and pistols. Dancing-girl. Dancing-girl playing with cobras. Elephant. Floral devices. Flowers in pot. Hands joined in centre of a heart. Hands joined, and clasping a flower. Heart. Heart and cross. Initials of the individual, his friends, relatives, and inamorata, sometimes within a heart or laurel wreath. Lizard. Mercy (word on left breast). Mermaid. Portraits of the man and his lady-love. Queen Alexandra. Royal arms and banners. Sailing boat. Scorpion. Solomon’s seal. Steam boat. Svastika (Buddhist emblem). Watteau shepherdess.

The most elaborate patterns were executed by Burmese tattooers. The initials of the individual’s Christian and surnames, which preponderated over other devices, were, as a rule, in Roman, but occasionally in Tamil characters.

In colour the Eurasians afford examples of the entire colour scale, through sundry shades of brown and yellow, to pale white, and even florid or rosy. The pilous or hairy system was, in the cases recorded by me, uniformly black. The colour of the iris, like that of the skin, is liable to great variation, from lustrous black to light, with a predominance of dark tints. Blue was observed only in a solitary instance.

The Eurasian resists exposure to the sun better than the European, and, while many wear solah topis (pith sun-hats), it is by no means uncommon to see a Eurasian walking about in the middle of a hot day with his head protected only by a straw hat or cap.

The average height of the Eurasians examined by me in Madras, according to my measurements of 130 subjects, is 166.6 cm. (5 feet 5½ inches), and compares as follows with that of the English and various Native classes inhabiting the city of Madras:—