47 



there has always been one white child in fami- 

 lies related to ours.' ' This child was afterward 

 exhibited before the Royal Society in London 

 by Admiral Ward, who bought her from her 

 master. Gases of an exactly similar nature are 

 on record, some of which occurred in Africa, 

 beyond the possibility, it is claimed, of there 

 being any deceit practiced upon the observers. 

 Whether these cases trace to a distant and for- 

 gotten infusion of white blood, or to some phe- 

 nomena akin to that which gives us albinos, or 

 even to a true and concealed white cross imme- 

 diately, they are very remarkable as cases of 

 atavism or under the last supposition of an 

 unusual effect of prepotency, the laws of which 

 we are presently to examine. 



