ALBINO. 



85 



of the Africans generally.* It has been like- 

 wise supposed that Celsus alluded to the Al- 

 bino, when he speaks of a peculiar condition 

 of the skin under the name of Leuce ;f but 

 this appears to be a morbid cutaneous affection, 

 and to have no reference to the subject now 

 under consideration. 



From the number of Albinoes which were 

 supposed to exist in certain countries, as well 

 as from the marked peculiarity in their ap- 

 pearance, an opinion was long entertained that 

 they formed a distinct race or variety of the 

 human species,J originating in some unknown 

 cause, and bearing the same relation to the 

 other inhabitants of the countries in which 

 they are found that the acknowledged varieties 

 of the human species bear to each other. But 

 this opinion, although sanctioned by high 

 authority, may be considered as decisively 

 disproved by the well-ascertained fact, that 

 Albinoes are born of parents who do not possess 

 this characteristic peculiarity of the skin, hair, 

 and eyes. 



Although Albinoes are of comparatively rare 

 occurrence in Europe, yet we have had a suffi- 

 cient number of examples to render us per- 

 fectly familiar with the appearance which they 

 present, and with the precise nature of the 



* See the note of Hardouin in loco, Valpy's ed. 

 p. 1285, Le Maire's, t. ii. p. 438; also the remark 

 of M. Marcus in M. Ajasson's Trans, of Pliny, 

 t. iv. p. 185. It is, perhaps, to this lighter coloured 

 negro, rather than to the proper Albino, that we 

 must refer, in part at least, the accounts which are 

 given by travellers of the great number of white 

 Africans that have been collected in certain situa- 

 tions. We may remark that all accounts of Albi- 

 noes that are given in general terms only, should be 

 received with a certain degree of caution, unless the 

 peculiar state of the eye is distinctly noticed. 

 Humboldt a remarks that the missionaries, when 

 they t met with any Indians that were less 

 black than ordinary, were accustomed to call them 

 white ; Pers. Nar. by Williams, v. iii. p. 287 et 

 seq. See Prichard, in Medical Cyclop. Art. " Tem- 

 perament," p. 163. 



t De Medicina, lib. 5. cap. 28. 19. 



j This appears to have been the case even with 

 Haller, El. Phys. xvi. 4. 13. p. 492. Voltaire main- 

 tains this hypothesis, Essai sur les moeurs, (Euvr. 

 t. xiii. Introd. and p. 7, 8. Buffon inclines to it; 

 but his opinion on this point is not decided or 

 uniform, t. iii. p. 501. See Is. St. Hilaire, p. 295. 



In addition to the authors already referred to, 

 we have a case of this kind by Helvetius, Hist. 

 Acad. Sc. 1734, p. 15 . . 7. The Albiness described 

 by Buffon was born of black parents : see also 

 Castillon, in Berlin Mem. 1762, p. 99 . . 105 ; Dic- 

 quemarc, Journ. Phys. 1777, p. 357 . . 0, and 1788, 

 p. 301 et seq. ; Hist. Acad. Scien. 1744, p. 12, 3 ; 

 and Maupertuis, Ven. Phys. p. 135 et seq. : Jeffer- 

 son, Notes on Virginia, p. 103 . . 5, mentions an in- 

 stance of three Albino sisters born of black parents ; 

 two of these had black children ; Firmin, Descrip. de 

 Surinam, t. i. p. 153, 5 ; Goldsmith's Anim. Nature, 

 t. i. p. 452, 3 ; Brue, Hist, des Voyages, t. iii. 

 p. 370, 0. See on this point Is. St. Hilaire, p. 303. 

 We have a decisive proof that the peculiarity of 

 the^Albino is merely accidental and individual, 

 and does not constitute a distinct variety, in the 

 state of the offspring of an Albino and a black 

 negro, which is not intermediate between the two, 

 as in the case of the Mulatto; Hunter, on the 

 Anim. CEcon. p. 248 ; Is. St. Hilaire, p. 305.. .7. 



circumstances which characterize them.* The 

 skin is of a milky whiteness, without the 

 slightest admixture of the brown or olive tint 

 which is found in the complexion of even the 

 fairest European female ; the hair is also per- 

 fectly white,f and is generally of a soft or 

 silky texture, while all the coloured parts of 

 the eye are of a delicate rose colour. We 

 are informed that the skin of the African and 

 American Albino is not only completely free 

 from any shade of brown or olive, but that it 

 is also devoid of the pink tinge which is found 

 more or less in the complexion of the European. 

 It would appear, likewise, that the skin of 

 the tropical Albino is frequently in a diseased 

 state, being covered with scales of a leprous 

 nature, and with a serous exudation, which 

 proceeds from the fissures or clefts that take 

 place in various parts of the surface.}: 



It has been a very general opinion, that be- 

 sides the peculiar state of the integuments, the 

 Albino possesses a general delicacy of habit 

 and constitution, and that he exhibits a defici- 

 ency even of mental power. For this latter 

 opinion there appears to be no sufficient foun- 

 dation, and with respect to the former we may 

 remark, that any general weakness of the phy- 

 sical frame, if it be actually found to exist, may 

 be probably referred, at least in some degree, 

 to the peculiar condition of the eyes and the 

 skin, which are not well adapted either to a 



' We have a copious list of references in Blu- 

 menbach, p. 278 . . 0, in Lawrence, p. 281 . . 9, and 

 in Is. St. Hilaire, ut supra and . 5. One of the 

 earliest of what may be considered as the correct 

 descriptions is that of Buffon, Supp. t. iv. p. 559 

 et seq. The descriptions of Blumenbach, . 78, 

 and of Saussure, Voy. . 1037 . . . 1043, are par- 

 ticularly correct and characteristic : to this we may 

 add the more recent account of Is. St. Hilaire, t. i. 

 par. 2, liv. 3. ch. 1, . 2 and 5. We are informed 

 by Ludolf, ubi supra, that the first modern writer 

 who distinctly mentions the Albino is Tellez. 



t Blumenbach particularly characterizes the 

 whiteness of the hair of the Albino as being " gilva, 

 colori cremoris lactis quodammodo comparanda," 

 p. 275. 



$ See Vossius, Ludolf, De la Croix, Cook's First 

 Voyage, and Winterbottom, ut supra; Blumen- 

 bach, p. 274; Buffon, in Hist. Acad. Scien. 1760, 

 p. 17 ; St. Hilaire, p. 304, 5 : Wafer, in his de- 

 scription of the white inhabitants of Darien, p. 134, 

 et seq., says that there is a white down on their 

 skin. 



Wafer, p. 134-8 ; Buffon, t. iii. p. 503 ; Wood's 

 Trans, vol, iii. p. 420 ; Voltaire, t. xv. p. 269,70; 

 Pauw, t. ii. p. 9, 10; Raynal, t. iii. p. 288 ; Du- 

 bois on the People of India, ch. xv. p. 199 et seq. ; 

 Firmin, t. i.p. 153 . . 5; Dalin, in Amren. Acad. t. vi. 

 p. 74, note ; Isert, Voy. en Guinee, ch. xv. p. 199 

 et seq. ; Labillardiere, Voyage, t. ii. p. 141 ; Win- 

 terbottom, nt supra ; Rayer, sur le Peau, t. ii. 

 p. 193 . . 203 ; Blandin, Diet. Med. Chir. Prac. "Al- 

 binie ;" Breschet, Diet, de Med. " Albino;'* 

 Sonini, in his edition of Buffon, t. xx. p. 355-6, 

 note. So far as regards the state of the intellect, 

 the charge is repelled by M. Sachs, who gives a 

 minute account of the peculiarity in his own person 

 and that of his sister ; Hist. Nat. cluor. Leucaethio- 

 pum. Jefferson informs us, that the Albinesses, of 

 which he gives an account, were " uncommonly 

 shrewd, quick in their appehension and reply," 

 p. 103-5. 



