Yields an ex the table, or cultivation of a species of radish, the raphanus sinensis. The culture of this plant has been attended with such success, as to merit attention. The Chinese radish yields a large quantity of oil; and excellent oil for periments lately made at Venice show, that this oil is preferable to any other kind known, not only for culinary purposes, and giving light, but in medicine. lamps. Useful in medicine, and keeps extraor From the experiments made by Dr. Francis di Oliviero, it is extremely useful in rheumatic and pulmonary affections; dinarily well. it is not able to spoil by keeping like other oils; and it has been employed with much success in convulsive coughs. Culture. The plant is not injured by the strongest frosts; it is sown in September, and in May or June the seed is gathered, which is very abundant. Process for lent hung beef in 48 hours. Simple process for salting and smoking meat. In Franconia a method of salting and smoking meat is making excel- employed, that requires only eight and forty hours. The following is the process. A quantity of saltpetre, equal to the common salt that would be required for the meat in the usual way, is dissolved in water. Into this the meat to be smoked is put, and kept over a slow fire for a few hours, till all the water is evaporated. It is then hung up in a thick smoke for four and twenty hours, when it will be found equal in flavour to the best Hamburg smoked meat, that has been kept several weeks in sult, as red interiorly, and as firm. To Correspondents. I am sorry to inform my correspondent at Whitby, that his letter was unfortunately lost by the carelessness of the messenger employed to convey it to me from the publisher. If he has retained a copy of it therefore, I would request the favour of him, to transmit it to me. Dr. Traill's letter will appear in our next number, JOURNAL OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY, AND THE ARTS. FEBRUARY, 1808. ARTICLE I. On Albinoes: by T. S. TRAILL, M, D. To Mr. NICHOLSON, THE following account of a poor family in this town is transmitted for insertion in your Journal, if deemed singular enough to entitle it to a place in that valuable miscellany. The history was noted down a few days ago in my house from the words of the mother, who brought with her two of her children, who in all respects resembles the Albinoes of Chamouni, so well described by de Saussure in his Voyage Dans les Alpes. Albinoes. Robert Edmond and his wife Anne are both natives of Their parents, Anglesey in North Wales. He has blue eyes and hair almost black; her eyes are blue, and her hair of a light brown. Neither of them have remarkably fair skins. They have been married fourteen years. Their first child, a girl, had blue eyes and brown hair. The second, a boy, (now before me) has the characteristics of an albino: viz. very fair skin, flaxen hair, and rose-coloured eyes. The third and fourth children were twins, and both boys; one of them has blue eyes and dark brown hair; the other was an albino. The former is still alive: the albino lived nine months, though a very VOL. XIX, FEB. 1808-No. 82. G puny The oldest described. The younger. Approach to it in a relation. Supposed want of the black mucus in the eye. puny child. The fifth child, a girl, had blue eyes and brown hair. The sixth, and last now here, is a perfect albino. sun. The oldest of these albinoes is now nine years of age, of a delicate constitution, slender, but well formed both in person and in features; his appetite has always been bad; he frequently complains of a dull pain in his forehead; his skin is exceedingly fair; his hair flaxen and soft; his cheeks have very little of the rose in them. The iris and pupil of his eyes are of a bright rose red colour, reflecting in some situations an opaline tinge. He cannot endure the strong light of the When desired to look up, his eyelids are in constant motion, and he is incapable of fixing the eye steadily on any object, as is observed in those labouring under some kinds of slight ophthalmia, but in him it is unaccompanied by tears. His mother says, that his tears never flow in the coldest weather, but when vexed they are shed abundantly. The white of the eye is generally bloodshot. He says he sees better by candle than by daylight; especially at present, when the reflection from the snow on the ground is extremely offensive to him. He goes to school, but generally retires to the darkest part of it to read his lesson, because this is most agreeable to his eyes. In my room, which has a northern aspect, he can only distinguish some of the letters in the pages of the Edinburgh Review; but, if the light is not permitted to fall full on the book, he is able to read most of them. He holds the book very near his eye. His disposition is very gentle; he is not deficient in intellect. His whole appearance is so remarkable, that some years ago a person attempted to steal bim, and would have succeeded in dragging him away, had not his cries brought a person to his assistance. The youngest child is now nine months old; is a very stout, lively, noisy, and healthy boy. In other respects he perfectly resembles his brother. The mother says, that one of her cousins has a very fair skin, flaxen hair, and very weak light blue eyes. Professor Blumenbach of Gottingen, in a curious memoir read before the Royal Society of that city, endeavoured to prove, that the red colour of the eyes of the albinoes of Chamouni was owing to the want of pigmentum nigrum within the section. the eye. About the same time, Buzzi of Milan had an opportunity of dissecting an albino, and proved, that the pig- Proved by dismentum nigrum of the choroid coat, and also that portion of it which Les behind the iris, and is called uvea by anatomists, were wanting; thus demonstrating what Blumenbach had supposed. This deficiency was observed before by Blumen- Wanting in bach in some white dogs, owls, and in white rabbits. Buzzi animals too. discovered, that the layer of the skin called rete mucosum Rete mucowas also wanting, and to this he with great probability attri- sum absent. butes the peculiar fairness of the skin; the colouring matter of the negro, and of the hair of animals, being lodged in this membrane. some white tawny parents continue their It is well known, that from the tawny natives of Asia, Albinoes from Africa, and America, albinoes sometimes spring, who are said to be capable of propagating a race like themselves, when race. they intermarry. Whether this be the case with the albinoes. of Europe is unknown; for, as far as I have been able to European allearn, not one of them was a female. There are on record binoes generally males. eight instances of European albinoes, beside the three now noticed. Two of these are described by Saussure, four by Buzzi, one by Helvetius, and one by Maupertuis, all of whom were males. The parents of the two young men of Chamouni bad female children of the usual appearance. The woman of Milan had seven sons, three of whom were albinoes. Mrs. Edmond's girls were all of the usual appearance, but all her boys were albinoes. Among these eleven cases not one albino girl has been found. This at least proves, that males are more subject than females to this singular structure. From the perpetuation of this variety of the human spe- This variety cies in Java, Guinea, and other places, as well as from the becomes hereaccount Mrs. Edmond gives of her cousin, it would seem to be hereditary. ditary. known. The causes which produce it are like those which produce Its cause undefects of limbs, or of various viscera, wholly concealed from our curiosity. Buzzi relates, that the woman of Milan, when pregnant with the albinoes, always had an immoderate lenging for milk, which she used to excess; but never feit that desire while pregnant with her other children; and he seems to ascribe this longing to some internal heat or disease. Mrs. G 2 Mrs. Edmond neither experienced any sensation, which could lead her to distinguish between cach kind of foetus; nor was her general health sensibly affected in one case inore than in the other. The story of the milk, so much resembles those invented by our own good ladies to explain nerci materni, or those singular marks which are sometimes observable on the bodies of children, that I am not disposed to pay much attention to it. With regard to the supposed internal disease, which Buzzi imagines destroyed the rete mucosum of the albino foetus, it is difficult to conceive any disease of the mother capable of producing so extensive an effect on one of Mrs. Edmond's children, while its twin brother was altogether free from any mark of the existence of such malady. Beside this, the regular alternation of the albinoes with her other children does not favour the notion of their peculiarities arising Not connected from disease on the system of the mother. De Saussure very with a moun- properly rejects the idea of this conformation being produced by the air of mountainous regions. The three albinoes I have just described were born ncar the sea, on the extensive plains of Lancashire, and the birthplace of the parents is the flat island of Anglesey. Where facts are so few, and the causes seemingly so remote from human investigation, it is better to rest satisfied with having observed them, than to waste time on useless hypothesis. tainous region. Liverpool, Dec. 9, 1807. THOMAS STEWART TRAILL. Instance of an ness. ANNOTATION. Dr. Trail justly remarks the singularity, that of all the cases of European albinoes on record not one should be a male. Most of my London readers, however, will be aware, that a female of this description has been exhibited in the metropolis for some years, and is at present at the rooms in Spring Gardens. She answers exactly to the full and accurate description of the boy given above. Her hair, I think, which she suffers to grow very long, has more of a silky appearance than that of the two male albinoes exhibited here |