ALBINISM IN MAN 



Extensive Researches of Galton Laboratory Lead to Denial of Its Mendelian 



Behavior — Warning as to Enunciation of Rules Governing Marriage — Eugen- 



ists Must Seek More Knowledge Before Offering Advice. 



A. E. Hamilton 

 Extension Department, Eugenics Record Office, Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, N. Y. 



HAPPILY contrary to expecta- 

 tion, the six volumes ^ already 

 issued from the mathematical 

 atmosphere of the Galton Lab- 

 oratory (London) on the subject of 

 albinism present no such arid acreage 

 of niunbers as one is usually invited 

 to contemplate by investigators at 

 that institution. With Adam and Eve 

 (who have been assumed a priori by 

 Christian mankind to have been 

 white) as a starting point, the authors 

 have traced the history and geograph- 

 ical distribution of albinism with all 

 the charm and freshness of a traveller's 

 tale, while a passion for micrometric 

 accuracy and critical sifting of author- 

 ities have rendered the reading of the 

 whole first volume a scientific delight. 

 The second volume of text is devoted 

 to the treatment of isolated cross 

 sections of the problem of albinism, 

 such as the microscopic structure of 

 the albinotic eye in man and animals, 

 the structure and composition of 

 albinotic hair, seasonal variations in 

 granular pigment content in the coats 

 of birds and animals, and the many 

 side-lines that such a study naturally 

 involves. Two photographic atlases 

 and one voltime containing over 650 

 pedigrees of human albinism and 

 partial albinism attest the remarkable 

 co-operation that it has been the well- 

 deserved good fortune of the investi- 

 gators to secure. Detailed descriptions 

 of the pedigree material, whose collec- 

 tion and working up has covered already 

 a period of eight years, fill the text of 

 Part IV, save for the space given to a 



bibliography of 700 titles of works on 

 albinism, the cream of which has been 

 incorporated in the present monograph. 

 A bare list of the interesting facts 

 concerning albinism in history, geog- 

 raphy, medicine, folk-lore and anthro- 

 pology would more than fill the space 

 allotted for this brief review, so that 

 only a few of the high-lights can here 

 receive mention. 



VARIETIES OF ALBINISM. 



A complete albino, for the purposes 

 of this investigation, is described as an 

 individual whose skin is of a charac- 

 teristic pallor or milky whiteness, whose 

 hair is white tinged possibly with yellow 

 or straw, and whose eyes have pink or 

 red pupils, translucent irides with the 

 usual accompaniments of defective vi- 

 sion, nystagmus and ametropia. In- 

 complete albinism embraces all condi- 

 tions where the aforementioned fac- 

 tors are not all present. Albinism as 

 thus defined occurs practically in every 

 section of the world and in almost every 

 variety of the human race, manifesting 

 itself in the black races of Africa, the 

 brown races of the Americas, the yel- 

 low races of Asia and the whites of 

 Europe and America, both in its com- 

 plete and incomplete form. The range 

 of variation, from a dash of whiteness 

 on the skin or the dilution of pigmenta- 

 tion in an eye to complete albinism, is 

 held by the authors to preclude the pos- 

 sibility of treating this condition as a 

 unit character in heredity and to indi- 

 cate that before it can, even with the 

 greatest latitude, be so treated, a vast 



1 Drapers' Company Research Memoirs, Biometric Series. A Monograph on Albinism in 

 Man, by Karl Pearson, E. Nettleship and C. H. Usher. Vols. I-VI. London, Dulau and Co., 

 Ltd. 



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