or relative absence of
pigment of the skin, due to an arrest, insufficiency, or retardation of
this pigment. Following Trelat and Guinard, we may divide albinism into
two classes,--general and partial.

As to the etiology of albinism, there is no known cause of the complete
form. Heredity plays no part in the number of cases investigated by the
authors. D'Aube, by his observations on white rabbits, believes that
the influence of consanguinity is a marked factor in the production of
albinism; there are, however, many instances of heredity in this
anomaly on record, and this idea is possibly in harmony with the
majority of observers. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire has noted that albinism
can also be a consequence of a pathologic condition having its origin
in adverse surroundings, the circumstances of the parents, such as the
want of exercise, nourishment, light, etc.

Lesser knew a family in which six out of seven were albinos, and in
some tropical countries, such as Loango, Lower Guinea, it is said to be
endemic. It is exceptional for the parents to be affected; but in a
case of Schlegel, quoted by Crocker, the grandfather was an albino, and
Marey describes the case of the Cape May albinos, in which the mother
and father were "fair emblems of the African race," and of their
children three were black and three were white, born in the following
order: two consecutive black boys, two consecutive white girls, one
black girl, one white boy. Sym of Edinburgh relates the history of a
family of seven children, who were alternately white and black. All
but the seventh were living and in good health and mentally without
defect. The parents and other relatives were dark. Figure 73 portrays
an albino family by the name of Cavalier who exhibited in Minneapolis
in 1887.

Examples of the total absence of pigment occur in all races, but
particularly is it interesting when seen in negroes who are found
absolutely white but preserving all the characteristics of their race,
as, for instance, the kinky, woolly hair, flattened nose, thick lips,
etc. Rene Claille, in his "Voyage a Tombouctou," says that he saw a
white infant, the offspring of a negro and negress. Its hair was
white, its eyes blue, and its lashes flaxen. Its pupils were of a
reddish color, and its physiognomy that of a Mandingo. He says such
cases are not at all uncommon; they are really negro albinos. Thomas
Jefferson, in his "History of Virginia," has an excellent descriptio