NOTES AND QUERIES. Ill 



is, I learn that the Ele23hant is fifteen years old; that the white patch was 

 at one time no bigger than my fist ; that the patch began to spread from 

 small dimensions to its present gigantic size when the animal was about 

 five years old; that Mr. White has been told that the animal exhibited a 

 very little patcli indeed when he was as young as one year old ; and that 

 Mr. White should imagine that the animal must have been born with the 

 patch, but that he had never been told so. Now, this history, for so far as 

 it may help, tallies with leucoderma, but is quite opposed to congenital 

 albinism. Then, as to the question of bilateral symmetry, I have before 

 me a photograph of a well-marked example of the piebald negro — that is to 

 say, of a negro affected with leucoderma. The negro is most extensively 

 and grotesquely piebald, but the bilateral symmetry exhibited by his 

 piebalduess is most exact. Now, it may be asked, do I deny the possibility 

 of such a thing as a partial congenital albinism? By no means. Such a 

 thing is quite well known, and I have repeatedly met with it. There are 

 many people now living in this country who have been born with a white 

 lock of hair, the rest of their hair being of a natural colour. But here 

 comes the point. Such patches always remain stationary ; they do not 

 increase progressively in size, and, moreover, they fail to present bilateral 

 symmetry ; they are perched oddly on one side only of the individual, and 

 there is no corresponding patch on the other side. Then why do I call the 

 Elephant's patch a disease ? Does it not come to the same thing, in effect, 

 in the one case as in the other — namely, to a sheer local deficiency of the 

 epidermic pigment? Well, scarcely so. In the first place, the fact of 

 leucoderma commencing during the lifetime of the individual constitutes 

 it a disease as against local albinism, which, being congenital, is a mal- 

 formation or deformity of the skin; but this is by no means the only 

 difference between the two. The one is not bilaterally symmetrical ; the 

 other is so. The one has no tendency to spread ; the other has a tendency 

 constantly to spread by slow degrees as long as it lasts. And then comes 

 a very important difference. Congenital local albinism is a thing which it 

 is impossible to cure, whereas leucoderma is open to the possibility of being 

 cured— in fact, it sometimes cures itself. I have known three instances in 

 which it has undergone spontaneous recovery within an average period of 

 six years. When I was taken to see the White Elephant I naturally 

 expected to see an albino — that is to say, an animal entirely white or faint 

 pink (as. Prof. Flower properly puts it), and with pink eyes. Such a thing 

 is not unknown among the Pachyderniata. It occurs in Pigs, for example. 

 In some animals true albinism is notoriously common— in the Eabbit, for 

 example. In the Elephant it is obviously extremely rare ; but so also is 

 leucoderma. There is one point I would touch on before I conclude. 

 A popular impression has gained ground that this animal may have the 

 leprosy, and it may be asked, Has leucoderma anything to do with the 



