Hawkins, in his Travels in the Interior of Africa, p. 116, describes the hair of the Albinos as red, or rather ashes coloured, sometimes approaching to yellow ; and though soft, still preserving the woody appearance of the negro. "The pupil of their eyes," he says," is white." In the colony of Sierra Leone, Winterbottom saw a girl about nine years old, who had been born in Nova Scotia ; her parents belonged to the Nova Scotian blacks, who were afterwards sent to that part of Africa. She had all the features of the negro ; her hair was woolly, the colour of a dirty white ; her skin differed from that of most Albinos, for though it equalled in whiteness the skin of a European, yet it had not that disagreeable appearance and texture which distinguish this singular race of peo ple. She also differed from the generality of them in possessing stronger eyes, though the colour of them was somewhat between a red and light hazel. The same author saw another girl, of nearly the same age, born of black parents ; her skin was of an unpleasant dead-look ing white, pretty smooth, but beginning to assume a cracked appearance : this character of the skin is more distinct in the Albinos as they grow up ; it then becomes remarkably coarse and wrinkled, dry and harsh to the touch, and marked with deep furrows. In this state of the skin, it is very susceptible to the action of the sun, which not only cracks it, but sometimes even occasions it to bleed: it is also very susceptible to the bites of insects.
The eyes of the Albinos arc always deprived, in a greater or less degree, of their colouriog matter, as well as the rote mucosum ; the iris is sometimes red, and sometimes of a reddish brown colour ; the pupil has the same tinge, and also the edges of the tarsi. When they are exposed to a strong light, they arc continually wink ing.• In some instances, the sebaceous glands are very large and numerous. NVinterbottom says, that the sin gularities which distinguish this variety of the human species, exist previously to birth : they never change afterwards, and are in sonic cases At Wankapong, this writer saw a young man, about 18 years old, whose father had been a white negro ; his mother, three brothers, and two of his sisters, were black, but one sister was white like himself. None of these people whom Wintcrbottom saw, scented to labour under any imbecility of intellect ; but their corporeal strength, and their powe: of e:.durmg fatigue, was in ferior to that of other negroes. The same observation is made by Dampier, in his account of the Albinos of the isthmus of Darien, who, from his description, resemble those of Africa very much in the colour of their skin, hair, and eyes.
It was for a long time supposed that Albinos were confined to the East Indies, Africa, and America ; and from their being found there, nearly under the same latitude, Baron adopted the opinion, that " w bite was the primitive colour of nature, which, in certain circum stances, after having been varied by climate, by food, and by manners, to yellow, brown, and black, returns, but so greatly altered, that it has little or no resemblance to the original whiteness." This opinion, however, is
not well-founded. Albinos, Ivith exactly the negro cast of countenance, and the peculiar appearance of the eye, have been found in various parts of Europe; though the singularity is not nearly so striking in a white as in a black person. Professor Blumenbach says, that he has seen sixteen individuals resembling Leuc2ethiopians, born in various parts of Germany ; and M. Buzzi. (0fiusculi &all de Milan, ITN, mentions a woman in that city who was the motner of seven sons, three of whom were Albinos. In 1803, a man died in Hereford shire, who was a complete Albino : he was rather below the middle stature ; his hair was white and soft, and his eyes red. He was one of six children, all the rest of whom were quite exempt from this singularity.
A middle complexion is produced where children are born front parents of different races. If the offspring of the darkest African and the fairest European intermarry successively with Europeans, in the fourth generation they become white ; when the circumstances are revers ed, the result is reversed also. Along with the succes sive changes of complexion, is also produced a change in the nature and colour of the hair ; though, in sonic instances, the woolly hair remains when the complexion has become nearly as fair as that of brown people in Europe. With regard to the offspring of Europeans and American Indians, the hair, according to Humboldt, does not indicate a mixture of the Indian blood, so clearly and certainly as the thinness of the beard, the smallness of the hands and feet, and a certain obliquity of the eyes. This offspring, to which the name of Mes tizo is given, are distinguished by a colour almost pure white, and a skin of a particular transparency. Ulloa describes, in a more minute and exact manner, the signs which indicate the Mestizos. The most remarkable, according to him, is the lowness of the forehead, which often leaves but a small space between their hair and eyebrows ; while, at the time, the hair grows remarkably forward on their temples, extending to the lower part of the ear. Besides, he adds, the hair itself is harsh, lank, coarse, and very black ; their nose very thin, with a little rising on the middle, from whence it forms a small curve, terminating in a point, bending towards the upper lip. These marks, besides some dark snots on the body, are so constant and invaria ble, as to make it very difficult to conceal the fallacy of their complexion: when. as it sometimes happens, it is so fine that they might otherwise pass for whites. vol. i. p. 276.) It does not, however, always happen that the offspring is the intermediate colour between that of the respective races to which the father and mother belong ; it some times resembles one parent only ; while, perhaps, in the second or third generation, the colour of the other parent makes its appearance.