HUMAN AND ANIMAL ALBINOS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 307, 28 December 1929, Page 7 (Supplement)

HUMAN AND ANIMAL ALBINOS.

In lieu of a better, the world has adopted the word "albino," which was applied a century or more ago by Portuguese traders to the "white negroes" on the West African coast. Pure albinism, the "absolute zero point" of lack of pigmentation, is relatively easy tp identify and to account for superficially. But where do we draw the line and begin to apply the word? Prolonged absence from sunlight produces in many animals a temporary bleaching. They often regain the loss upon emerging into daylight. In those winter changes undergone by the varying hare, common weasel and ptarmigan grouse, although they retain their invaluable dark eyes, we have a decolourising process which in a certain sense is albinism. The out-and-out, albino eees poorly in bright daylight; trustworthy eyesight is a necessity for such animals, especially in winter. The Polar bear has no pigment in his fur. There ie a certain kind' of rabbit whose eyes are pink and fur white, except on ear tips, tail and feet. How is he to be classed? When humans are albinos they always possess a peculiarly rough Bkin, and, as in animals no pigmentation exists internally throughout the nervous system.