Volume VII APRIL, 1910 No. 3 
HISTOLOGICAL EXAMINATION OF A CASE 
OF ALBINISM. 
By J. E. ADLER, F.R.C.S. and J. MCINTOSH, M.D. 
{From the Bacteriological Laboratory, London Hospital, E.) 
Albinism has now long been a subject of interest to medical science, and many 
papers have appeared from time to time descriptive of its clinical peculiarities. 
The literature on the histological findings of the affected parts is, however, most 
scanty, and is usually confined to descriptions of pieces of the iris removed at 
operations for traumatic and other affections. 
In looking through the literature only one record of a complete post-mortem 
examination on an albino could be found. This was made by Buzzi in 1783 (2). 
The case from his description appears to have been a complete albino, but his 
descriptions of the minute anatomy are far from satisfactory. Carron du Villards (1) 
and Maury (8) record dissections of human albino eyes; the former with absence of 
all pigment, the latter with traces of pigment. 
It is a pity that a more uniform system of classification has not been adopted 
by the various observers in the description of their cases, so that it might have 
been possible to get a correct idea of the condition observed. 
All the cases on which histological observations have been made, with the 
exception of Buzzi's case, would come under the groups of incomplete albinism, 
according to the classification proposed by Geoffrey Saint Hilaire (3). 
In the case of partial albinism recorded by Mueller (9), there was a complete 
absence of all pigment in certain areas of the iris. In Nettleship's case there was 
a complete absence of pigment in the portion of the iris examined which was 
probably a fair sample. On the other hand, in Usher's cases of incomplete albinism 
recorded by Nettleship (10), there was diminished pigment in both choroid and 
retina. Clinically Usher's cases might pass for complete albinos, and this would 
mean that we could not distinguish by clinical methods between cases of incomplete 
and complete albinism. 
The case with which we are about to deal, and which we had the opportunity 
of examining, was that of a female child of 10 weeks. The child was the second 
albino in the family, and the mother had taken the matter so much to heart that 
Biometrika vii 31 
