OF THE SKIN IN GENERAL. 225 



bouilli, or tallow, it is always sufficiently like the matter of 

 the sebaceous follicles, to be recognised. 



325. Various accidental productions, either analogous or 

 morbid, are observed in the skin. This membrane is some- 

 times raised up by a more or less great, and sometimes, an in- 

 numerable quantity of tumours, very various as to size, and 

 formed by the accidental production of a white fibrous tissue, 

 that is much more compact than the cellular tissue, and looser 

 than the ligamentous tissue, one that is often found in polypi, and 

 particularly in the sub-mucous tumours of the vagina and vulva. 

 326. The colour of the skin presents various changes. That 

 of the albinoes is the most singular: their skin is of a dead, or 

 rosy white, very different from the white of Europeans; their 

 hairs are transparent, whitish, or rather colourless; the iris of 

 the eye is of a pale rose, and the opening of the pupil red, 

 which is owing to the absence of the pigment of the choroides, 

 and of the uvea. The functions of the skin, and particularly 

 of the eyes, feel the effects of this alteration, which has been 

 attributed to the absence of the mucous body, and which, at 

 any rate, certainly depends upon that of the colouring matter 

 of the skin and its appendages; it is wrong to regard it as the 

 effect of a leprosy, a cachexia, or as a state of -disease; it is an 

 error of Blumenbach and Winterbottom, sufficiently refuted by 

 the observations of Jefferson, who expressly declares, that all 

 the individuals of this kind that he saw were well made, strong 

 and healthy. This alteration is found in all the races of the 

 human family, in every part of the globe, and in a great many 

 genera of animals. It begins at birth, continues through life, 

 and is transmitted by generation. The union of an albino and 

 of a coloured person, generally produces coloured offspring, 

 and sometimes albinoes. It does not, however, constitute a 

 race in the human species, but is found sporadically, or as ac- 

 cidental varieties. 



The noevi and marks on the skin, consist, in some cases, of a 

 coloured patch of the mucous body, which in this case is 

 usually visibly thicker in that point than elsewhere; in others, 

 they consist in an erectile disposition of the cutaneous vessels, 

 which will be described hereafter. (Chap. iv. ) 



