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ALEXANDER WHISTELO.

573

which T take to be an exception;
for if I have no knowledge of
any matters whieh go positively
to contradict the woman's testi-
mony, I should naturally lean to-
wards it, Do you consider this
case a8 having any affinity with
what is called slbinaget I hava
not much experience on the sub-
ject of albinos, as my residenes

where such accidents rarely oc-
eur. But I have known in-
stances of negroes turning white
where there was no symptom of
disease or sickness.

Mr. Morton. Have the good-
ness, dostor, to relate them.

{The witness then related tho
cases of Henry Moss and the
negroes Maurice* and Pompey.*)

has been chiefly in New York,

“Some time in the year 1702, Henry Moss, who was born of
black parents, and as black himsel? as negroes generally are,
began to grow white. The first whiteness began about the nail. of
the fingers; but in the course of the change none of them have
fallen off, except those of the little toes, There has been no scabbi-
ness, ulceration or falling off of the euticle—nor could this covering
be removed by rubbing, washing or chafing, The whiteness has
spread over the whole body, neck, shoulders and arms, and down
the thighs and legs. Some brownness remains in his face, hands and
feet, He thinks hig vense of touch more acute than it used to be;
and his feelings so sharpened, that he is more readily affected by the
colar warmth than he formerly was, being able, while he was black,
to support great degrees of sun-shining heat. A change has taken
place in his sight. He has had no sickness before or during thia
alteration of color to account for it, The skin is of the white carna-
tion hue, and the blue veins plainly visible through it. Tho rete
mucosum seems to have undergone the prineipal change. His woolly
hair is falling ont, and straight hair coming in its place on bis
head; and the same thing has already happened on his legs. He
observes his flesh is now less disposed to heal from wounds and
cuts than it used to be,

A. young negro, named Maurice, aged twenty-five years, began
about seven years’ ago to lose his native color. A white spot ap-
peared on the right side of his belly, which is now about as large
as the palms of two bands. Another white spot has appeared on
hig breast, and several more on his arms and other parts; and the
sable cloud is plainly disappearing on his shoulder. Tho skin of
these fair spots is not surpassed by the European complexion. His
general health is, and has been good; and he has suffered no scald-
ing ulceration, seabbiness or other local disease. The change is not
the dead white of the albinos, but is @ good wholesome carnation
hue. Such an alteration of color as this militates powerfully
against the opinion adopted by some modern philosophers, that the
negroes are @ different species of the human race from the whites,
and tends strongly to corrohorate the probability of the derivation
of all the varieties of mankind from a single pair. Faets of this
Kind are of great value to the zoologist, How additionally singular

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