430 Anthropologie. 



1175) Pearson, K., Nettleship, E. and Usher, CIL, A Monograph on 

 Albinism in Man. London (Dulau & Co.) 1911, 1913. Parts I and IL Text 

 and Atlas. 524 S, and 85 plates. Part IV, Text and Atlas. 160 S. and* 

 59 plates. 



The first part of this work appeared in 1911, the second and fourth in 1913. 

 It is not yet complete. The authors find it impossible to give a rigid definition 

 of albinism, since pigment is very rarely if ever totally absent in man, and many 

 grades of reduction occur, so that the memoir deals not only with cases of nearly 

 complete absence of pigment, but also with those of deficient pigment and pie- 

 balding. 



More than half of Part I deals with early records of albinos and espe- 

 cially with their geographica! distribution. In this section the statistics of its 

 occurence, as far as they can be obtained, are discussed for the countries of 

 Europe, and a great number of records are collected giving particulars of albinos 

 in the various coloured races of all parts of the world. These are illustrated by 

 excellent plates. These chapters are followed by an account of the various hypo- 

 theses which have been advanced to account for the absence of pigment in the 

 albinotic skin, and of the occurrence and possible causes of pathological leuco- 

 derma. Finally a number of cases of partial albinism (piebalding) are described 

 and figured, and it is concluded that there is some evidence that Stocks which 

 have latent albinism are likely to produce partial albinos, and are possibly more 

 susceptible to leucoderma. 



Part II is chiefly devoted to the authors' own observations. In the chapter 

 on the albinotic eye in Man it is shown that complete absence of pigment is 

 unknown in adults; the retinal epithelium is pigmented to some extent in every 

 adult eye examined. Various stages of pigment-reduction occur, in both iris and 

 choroid and in the retinal epithelium. The characteristics of the living albinotic 

 eye, both in its appearance and in the effects of albinism on function, e. g. sus- 

 ceptibility to light, prevalence of Nystagmus etc., are fully described. For com- 

 parison, the structure and peculiarities of albinotic eyes in various animals are 

 described. In complete albinos of some species pigment is entirely absent; in 

 other cases it may show various stages of reduction, either generally or locally, 

 so that many types of "albinotic" eye may occur in different species, or even 

 in the same species. 



The hair of human albinos shows as much diversity in the extent and distri- 

 bution of its pigment as does the eye. That of an apparently complete albino 

 may contain some pigment-granules, while red or yellow hair of normal persons 

 may have only diffuse pigment and no granules. A rufous type of albino is 

 recognised, and there seems to be a tendency for albinotic Stocks to have 

 red hair. 



A chapter is given to the seasonal Variation of animals which become white 

 in winter, the greater part of which is taken up with a description of the sea- 

 sonal changes of Lepus variahiJls kept in conlinement, with confirmatory obser- 

 vations on other species. The seasonal change appears to be due to the shedding 

 of pigmented hair which is replaced by new white hairs in autumn, and the re- 

 placement of these by a fresh growth of coloured hairs in spring. 



Finally an account is given of breeding experiments with an albinotic strain 

 of dogs. The dogs were not completely without pigment, and it is concluded 

 that the results are not in accord with any simple Mendelian scheme. Part IV 

 consists of 59 plates of pedigrees (nearly 700 altogether) and a description of the 

 pedigrees with bibliography. Doncaster. 



