A description of the two albinos of Europe, (one twenty-one, the other twenty-four years of age) / extracted from M. Saussure's 'Journey to the Alps,' in the year 1785.

  • Saussure, Horace Bénédict de, 1740-1799
Date:
1791
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A description of the two albinos of Europe, (one twenty-one, the other twenty-four years of age) / extracted from M. Saussure's 'Journey to the Alps,' in the year 1785. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [ 3 ] circumftances in thofe of Chamouni, are mark¬ ed with chara&ers fufficiently flrong to entitle them to the unhappy advantage of being claf- fed with that variety of the human fpecies de¬ nominated Albinos. “When nature prefents the fame appearance often, and with circumftances varied, we may at la ft difcover fome general law, or fome rela¬ tion which that appearance has with known caufes; but when a fa£t is fo fmgular and fo rare as that of thofe Albinos, it gives but little fcope to conje&ures; and it is very difficult to verify thofe by which we attempt to explain it. “ I at firft imagined that this difeafe might be referred to a particular fort of organic de¬ bility : that a relaxation of the lymphatic vef- fels within the eye might fuffer the globules of the blood to enter too abundantly into the iris, the uvea, and even into the retina, which might occafion the rednefs of the iris and of the pupil. The fame debility feemed alfo to account for the intolerance of the light, and for the whitenefs of the hair. “ But