331 



sometimes given by a diseased eye when its choroidal pigment and 

 " internal pigment layer " have been broken down and absorbed or 

 displaced. The bottom of a normal eye appears throngh the ophthal- 

 moscope a darker or lighter shade of red, simply because we throw 

 sufficient light into it, and are enabled to receive the rays that are re- 

 flected back through the retina from the choroid. The albino's is the 

 same eye deprived of pigment: and thus, the light being allowed to 

 shine through the iris and sclerotic, we see the choroid through the 

 pupil of a pink color ; and hence the popular saying, that albinos have 

 pink eyes. The same is true of white rabbits. We sometimes get a 

 reflection from the bottom of some human eyes under certain angles of 

 light, dependent upon the relative position of observer and observed : 

 this, as it is uncommon, is considered unnatural. 



These children were not of sufficient age to ascertain accurately the 

 degree of near-sightedness, some questions as to the circles of disper- 

 sion, and other points of physiological interest, &c. I asked the person 

 in whose charge they were to try the effect of some covers or blinders 

 made of thin gutta-percha, with a horizontal slit in imitation of the 

 snow-blinders used by the Esquimaux, which I had made for some 

 other albinos ; who, however, from prejudice, would not wear them. 



Since these children were first in Boston, there have been three 

 albinos exhibited here, — a man, and his wife and child. I believe 

 there was no doubt that this was their relation. It would set at 

 ■rest the question raised in the books, whether perfect albinos are capa- 

 ble of perpetuating their race inter se. No power of persuasion could 

 induce these people to submit to an ophthalmoscopic examination of 

 their eyes. It was somewhere stated that their pupils were sc[uare, 

 instead of circular. I examined them carefully in reference to this 

 point ; and to me they were round, although in certain lights I saw 

 that they seemed square. The child, a boj', was, I think, near-sighted : 

 the ophthalmoscope alone could decide this ; for the amblyopia from ex- 

 cessive light would induce the albino to hold a book near to the eye ; 

 and the contraction of the brows and partial closing of the eyelids are 

 his means of excluding too great an" amount of the rays from his retina, 

 laid bare, as it were, by the absence of pigment. 



The President, on behalf of the Building Committee, made 

 a preliminary verbal report, to the effect that the new Soci- 

 ety Building at the corner of Berkeley and Boylston Streets 

 Was nearly ready for permanent occupation ; that the libra- 

 ry-room, where the meetings were to be held, was entirely 

 finished; and that enough storage-rooms were ready to ac- 

 commodate the collections. 



