78 PERSONAL APPEARANCES IN HEALTH AND DISEASE. 



tints due to the colour of the blood showing through the 

 cuticle are very manifest; the hair is a pure white, on 

 the scalp, the eyebrows, eyelashes, &c. ; the pupil looks 

 red, like a white rabbit's eye, from the absence of any 

 pigment on the choroid at the back of the eyeball, so 

 that the colour of the blood in that vascular membrane 

 is reflected through the transparent media of the eye; 

 and the iris also is destitute of colour, or rather its colour 

 is pinkish or red for the same reason as the choroid is. 

 This condition of "albinism" is said to be less common 

 among the white races than among the black, so that a 

 * white negro " is a verity. There are instances also 

 where this albinism instead of being general is partial, 

 the result being a sort of piebald. 



Among the white races, the Indo- European stock, 

 there are two well-marked types of colouration of the 

 body. From each of these there are numerous departures 

 and variations, still even in common parlance it is custo- 

 mary to speak of a person being "fair" or "dark" 

 according as he falls under one or the other description. 

 The typical fair-complexioned blonde has ^a delicate soft 

 skin, through which the emotional disturbances of the 

 circulation are readily seen, fine yellow flaxen hair, and 

 irides of a bluish or greyish tint. The dark-complexioned 

 or brunette has a coarser skin, with more pigment in it 

 in the usual seats of this pigment black hair, or shades 



