Prichard, quoted by Sedgwick, speaks of a case of atavic
transmission of albinism through the male line of the negro race.
The grandfather and the grandchild were albinos, the father being
black. There is a case of a brother and sister who were albinos,
the parents being of ordinary color but the grandfather an
albino. Coinde, quoted by Sedgwick, speaks of a man who, by two
different wives, had three albino children.
A description of the ordinary type of albino would be as follows:
The skin and hair are deprived of pigment; the eyebrows and
eyelashes are of a brilliant white or are yellowish; the iris and
the choroid are nearly or entirely deprived of coloring material,
and in looking at the eye we see a roseate zone and the ordinary
pink pupil; from absence of pigment they necessarily keep their
eyes three-quarters closed, being photophobic to a high degree.
They are amblyopic, and this is due partially to a high degree of
ametropia (caused by crushing of the eyeball in the endeavor to
shut out light) and from retinal exhaustion and nystagmus. Many
authors have claimed that they have little intelligence, but this
opinion is not true. Ordinarily the reproductive functions are
normal, and if we exclude the results of the union of two albinos
we may say that these individuals are fecund.
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