352 Anomalies of Pigmentation among Natives of Nyasaland 
Lijimi [(a) above] was circumcised by me on 5th April 1911. Fourteen 
months later he was again seen. Examination revealed a circular patch of 
pigmentation dark brown in colour involving the lips of the meatus and a 
small area round them, three-eighths of an inch in circumference ; the remainder 
of the glans was of a light pink colour, totally devoid of pigment as at the time 
of circumcision. The prepuce was carefully preserved and transverse sections 
prepared and mounted unstained and stained with haematoxylin and eosin 
and by Van Gieson's method for microscopical examination. I may say at once 
that, with the exception of the deficiency of pigment granules, the whole 
structure of the albinotic areas of the skin appears normal. In the normally 
pigmented part of the prepuce the basal cells of the Malpighian layer are the 
most deeply pigmented, some of them being so full of dark brown granules as 
to appear almost black and homogeneous ; this is most marked in the cells at 
the end of the deep processes of epithelium dipping down into the dermis and 
also in the cells lining the lower parts of the sides of these processes. Those 
cells less deeply placed are less pigmented, but all the cells, even the most 
superficial ones, of the stratum corneum contain some granules. The granules 
tend to be arranged round the periphery of the cells, especially at the distal 
end of the cells, giving a very characteristic appearance. In the subjacent 
dermis a few cells containing pigment granules are seen, small in number and 
not very heavily pigmented. The transition from the normal pigmentation to 
skin absolutely devoid of pigment is seen to occur in from 1 to 2 millimetres, 
that is to say, it is not absolutely sudden but the gradation is rapid. The 
diminution in the number of granules is practically proportional in all layers 
of the epidermis ; in the dermis the loss appears possibly to be absolute before 
the same change is complete in the superjacent epidermis, and the cells lining 
the sides of the deep epidermal processes retain a greater number of granules 
than the cells at the more superficial and deeper parts : see Plate XVII (19) 
and (20). 
Prolonged beyond the last cells containing granular pigment a band of 
yellowish brown diffuse colour is visible affecting a layer of cells two or three 
cells thick at the junction of the stratum corneum and stratum granulosum. 
IV. Notes on Anomalies of Hair Pigmentation. 
Samples of hair were examined with results as follows : 
Simbeleta and Nederi, a type of rather coarse hair, which is not very curly, 
recognised by the natives as turning white early iu life. Microscopically white 
hairs were devoid of all pigment, a few brown hairs showed brown diffuse 
pigment, with densely packed granules, the black hairs being normally black 
and completely packed with black granules. 
Mwana Ngala. Aged 2^ years, stated to have had yaws, and in consequence 
of this illness the hair at the sides of the head and temples is brownish in 
