McDowall of twenty-two. On each side of the median line of the head there were five deep furrows, more curved and shorter as the distance from the median line increased. In the illustration the hair in the furrows is left longer than that on the rest of the head. The patient was distinctly microcephalic and the right side of the body was markedly wasted. The folds were due to hypertrophy of the muscles and scalp, and the same sort of furrowing is noticed when a dog "pricks his ears." This case may possibly be considered as an example of reversion to inferior types. Cowan records two cases of the foregoing nature in idiots.
The first case was a paralytic idiot of thirty-nine, whose cranial development was small in proportion to the size of the face and body; the cranium was oxycephalic; the scalp was lax and redundant and the hair thin; there were 13 furrows, five on each side running anteroposteriorly, and three in the occipital region running transversely. The occipitofrontalis muscle had no action on them. The second case was that of an idiot of forty-four of a more degraded type than the previous one. The cranium was round and bullet-shaped and the hair generally thick. The scalp was not so lax as in the other case, but the furrows were more crooked.
By tickling the scalp over the back of the neck the two median furrows involuntarily deepened.
Impervious Skin.--There have been individuals who claimed that their skin was impervious to ordinary puncture, and from time to time these individuals have appeared in some of the larger medical clinics of the world for inspection. According to a recent number of the London Graphic, there is in Berlin a Singhalese who baffles all investigations by physicians by the impenetrability of his skin. The bronzed Easterner, a Hercules in shape, claims to have found an elixir which will render the human skin impervious to any metal point or sharpened edge of a knife or dagger, and calls himself the "Man with Iron Skin." He is now exhibiting himself, and his greatest feat is to pass with his entire body through a hoop the inside of which is hardly big enough to admit his body and is closely set with sharp knife-points, daggers, nails, and similar things. Through this hoop he squeezes his body with absolute impunity. The physicians do not agree as to his immunity, and some of them think that Rhannin, which is his name, is a fakir who has by long practice succeeded in hardening himself against the impressions of metal upon his skin. The professors of the Berlin clinic, however, considered it worth while to lecture about the man's skin, pronouncing it an inexplicable matter. This individual performed at the London Alhambra in the latter part of 1895. Besides climbing with bare feet a ladder whose rungs were sharp-edged swords, and lying on a bed of nail points with four men seated upon him, he curled himself up in a barrel, through whose inner edges nails projected, and was rolled about the stage at a rapid rate. Emerging from thence uninjured, he gracefully bows himself off the stage.
Some individuals claim immunity from burns and show many interesting feats in handling fire. As they are nothing but skilful "fire jugglers" they deserve no mention here. The immunity of the participants in the savage fire ceremonies will be discussed in Chapter IX.
Albinism is characterized by the absolute 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.