ALBUCA. 



colour of the skin is owing to the imperfection or the 

 absence of one of the three parts of which the skins 

 of ordinary human beings are made up. These parts 

 are, first and externally, the epidermis, cuticle, or 

 ecarf-skin, made up wholly of coagulated albumen, 

 without vascular tissue, nerves, feeling, or sensation of 

 any kind, and inmost instances fading, after a time, into 

 scales, or other exuviae ; secondly, the mucous web, or 

 tissue (i-etc mucosum), which consists of a coat of fibrous 

 network, loaded with a mucous pigment, something 

 analogous to that on the iris and choroid coat of the 

 eye, and on which the colour and complexion are 

 understood to depend ; and, thirdly, the true skin 

 (ciiti.1 i^era), which consists of muscular fibres, nerves, 

 and blood-vessels, is remarkably sensitive, incapable 

 of 1 tearing the action of the air without great pain, 

 and is probably the only part of the triple inte- 

 gument which can be regarded as possessing life and 

 feeling in the ordinary sense of the terms. It has been 

 said that the epidermis has a tendency to fade off in 

 scales, which is more or less prevented by the exuda- 

 tions through its pores from the parts beneath ; and 

 there is some reason to suppose that these exudations 

 proceed, in part at least, from the mucous tissue, 

 which is the seat of colour. The ground of that sup- 

 position is, that the darker the tint of the skin the 

 softer in general it is, and the stronger the peculiar 

 odour which it gives out ; and that in the albino 

 negro the skin is hard arid dry, resembling, in some 

 respects, the skin of a leprous person ; and it, in a 

 great measure, wants the odour given out by the skin 

 of the dark negro. 



The hair appears to derive its substance from the 

 true skin, and its colour from the mucous tissue ; and 

 the colouring matter which it receives from the latter 

 seems to increase its volume, and also to give it an 

 unctuous feel. The hair of the Albino wants, of 

 course, the colouring matter ; and instead of being 

 humid to the feel, it is silvery or pearly. The same 

 may be said of grey hair, which always wants the 

 moisture of that which retains its colour. 



Though, in general, there appears to be a well- 

 established connexion between the degree in which 

 the mucous pigment is deposited on the iris and cho- 

 roid coat of the eye, and that which it attains in 

 the mucous tissue between the epidermis and the skin 

 all over the body, yet there is not an exact propor- 

 tion between the one and the other. There are races 

 of people who have the skin dark, the hair deep 

 black, and the eyes very light grey ; and there are 

 many individuals who have the skin and hair both 

 very fair, and the eyes black ; and the dark eye ap- 

 pears to be able to stand the light when accompa- 

 nied by the fair skin and hair, as well as where these 

 are of its own complexion. 



In the production and continuance of hair upon the 

 human subject, there appears also often to be a differ- 

 ence between the true skin, which produces and main- 

 tains the substance, and the mucous tissue which pro- 

 vides the colour ; and this to such an extent, as that 

 the yielding of the one is often accompanied by a 

 more certain maintenance of the other. Many of 

 those in whom the hair becomes grey at an early pe- 

 riod of life, retain it without diminution in quantity or 

 in growth to the very close of life ; and, on the other 

 hand, many of those who begin to lose their hair early 

 in life, retain what remains unaltered in colour to the 

 very last. Indeed, so well marked 'is the distinction 

 between those cases, that it is a common saying, that 

 NAT. HIST. VOL. I. 



the grey man seldom becomes bald, or the bald man 

 grey. There have also been instances of individuals 

 in which the true skin was incapable of producing 

 hair at any period of life ; but in them the mucous 

 tissue appears to have been imperfect, as they have 

 been usually of fair complexions and weak eyes, 

 with a reddish tinge on the iris ; and those also upon 

 whom hairs are comparatively few and rudirnental, 

 have been generally fair, and the few rudimental lines 

 have been white. 



That albinoism is owing to the want of the mu- 

 cous tissue is further proved by the results of those 

 wounds in the skin by which that [tissue is topically 

 destroyed. A surface wound upon the finger, espe- 

 cially if it be kept in a state of irritation for some 

 time, will produce a white mark on the nail, which 

 will travel gradually along that organ, until it is cut 

 off at the point ; and if the injury has been of a very 

 serious nature, and the irritation long continued, a de- 

 rangement of the nail may be produced, which will 

 never be removed. Galling the back of a horse also 

 produces white hair after the wound -bcals, even 

 though the colour has been originally deep black ; and 

 jockeys sometimes avail themselves of this, and by 

 destroying the mucous tissue with a hot iron produce 

 a white spot on the forehead of the horse, if such a 

 mark be considered as ornamental. 



All these facts tend to prove that the white colour 

 in the albino, whether of the skin or the hair, is owing 

 to the want of the mucous tissue ; but they do not 

 throw any light upon the cause of the deficiency, or 

 want of that organ. One can, however, easily enough 

 understand why albinos should be more common 

 among people of darker complexion, because among 

 such a people the mucous tissue is of more import- 

 ance as the action upon it is greater. That, in any 

 particular district, it takes place more readily among 

 the aborigines than among emigrants, is a further 

 proof of the same position ; and on the same fact, it 

 is not very difficult to ground a theory of the differences 

 of colour that are found among the human race, 

 supposing them all to be issuing from a single pair. 

 See MAN. 



Human beings are not the only animals among 

 whom albinos appear. They are found among very 

 many of the mammalia, and not a few of the birds ; 

 and where they occur, they have nearly the same cor- 

 responding colours of the skin and the eyes, and the 

 same pain in the latter when exposed to bright light, 

 which characterise the human albinos. Albinoism 

 among them does not, however, depend upon the ab- 

 sence of the colouring influence of the sun, as it ap- 

 pears to do in those species w hich turn white during 

 the winter ; but there is no such marked diminution 

 of the number of albinos, from the regions of the 

 equator to the higher latitudes, among the other ani- 

 mals, whether mammalia or birds, as there are among 

 the human race. Among the cold-blooded animals no 

 albinos Tiave been found ; or at least any traces which 

 have been observed in them have been easily referable 

 to disease, whereas in the albinoism of the warmer- 

 blooded animal there is no disease : but merely a 

 deficiency of the original structure. Sec COLOUR of 

 Animals. 



ALBUCA (Linnaeus). A family of bulbous flower- 

 ing plants, natives of the Cape of Good Hope. There 

 are nineteen species described, which are usually kept 

 as green-house ornamental plants. Linneean class and 

 order, Hcxandria Monogynia. Natural order Aspho- 

 K 



