An Attempt to classify 



although several instances have been recorded in VII. 593. 

 — 598. There are three sorts, however, of true perma- 

 nent albinoes, which may be thus designated : — 1. Perfect 

 Albinoes ; which are entirely white, and in which the eyes 

 appear crimson, from the total want of colouring matter, 

 rendering the minute bloodvessels visible : 2. Semi- Albinoes ; 

 which are either white or of a pale colour all over, and in 

 which the irides are always paler than usual, and not un- 

 frequently blue [I. 66. 178.] : and, 3. Partial Albinoes ; which 

 are partly of the natural colour, but are more or less mottled 

 permanently with white ; and in which, if a white patch sur- 

 rounds the eye, the pigmentum of that organ is commonly 

 wanting. I have thus observed a rabbit, one eye of which 

 was red, and the other dark hazel; but such instances are of 

 very rare occurrence, although (and it is a curious fact) rabbits 

 are often seen wholly white, with the exception of a small patch 

 around each eye ; which organ, consequently, is of the usual 

 dark colour. Albinoes, when paired together, as is well 

 known, produce chiefly albino offspring, and a breed of them 

 may thus be perpetuated ; but, even in a domestic state, they 

 not unfrequently produce young of the usual colour; and, if 

 paired with an ordinary individual, they sometimes produce 

 partial albinoes, or semi-albinoes [I. 178.], and occasionally, 

 if the original colour be brown (as in the case of mice or 

 rabbits*), a black, sandy, or slate-coloured offspring, or an 

 individual with one of these colours more or less varied with 

 white, is produced ; but, in the ' majority of instances, the 

 young wholly resemble one of their parents, and the prepon- 

 derance is decidedly in favour of the natural hue. The coloured 

 offspring of an albino, however, even if matched with another 

 coloured individual, has still a tendency to produce albinoesf, 

 and this fact has been noticed in the human species ; but, as 

 Mr. Lawrence observes on the subject (in his Lectures on the 

 Physiology, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man), "the 

 disposition to change is ' generally ' exhausted in one indivi- 

 dual, and the characters of the original stock return, unless the 

 variety is kept up by the precaution above mentioned, of ex- 

 cluding from the breed all which have not the new characters. 

 Thus, when African albinoes intermix with the common race, 

 the offspring generally is black," &c. These observations 

 apply alike to all simple or individual variations, and to most 

 other varieties, and afford one of many reasons why marked 



* These observations are chiefly deduced from the results of some ex- 

 periments with mice and rabbits. 



f Of seven young rabbits thus produced, two were albinoes, one black, 

 and the remainder of the usual colour. 



