Partial albinism is seen. The parts most often affected are the
genitals, the hair, the face, the top of the trunk, the nipple,
the back of the hands and fingers. Folker reports the history of
a case of an albino girl having pink eyes and red hair, the rest
of the family having pink eyes and white hair. Partial albinism,
necessarily congenital, presenting a piebald appearance, must not
be confounded with leukoderma, which is rarely seen in the young
and which will be described later.
Albinism is found in the lower animals, and is exemplified
ordinarily by rats, mice, crows, robins, etc. In the Zoologic
Garden at Baltimore two years ago was a pair of pure albino
opossums. The white elephant is celebrated in the religious
history of Oriental nations, and is an object of veneration and
worship in Siam. White monkeys and white roosters are also
worshiped. In the Natural History Museum in London there are
stuffed examples of albinism and melanism in the lower animals.
Melanism is an anomaly, the exact contrary of the preceding. It
is characterized by the presence in the tissues and skin of an
excessive amount of pigment. True total melanism is unknown in
man, in whom is only observed partial melanism, characterized
simply by a pronounced coloration of part of the integument.
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