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Date: 27 Mar 1857
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Date: 27 Apr 1936
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Born
27 Mar 1857
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Died
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Created
E.M. Phillips et. al., Survey Schedule 'As to Frequency of Albinism in China.'
From 1908 to 1912
Description:
‘As to Frequency of Albinism in China.
A.
Doctors Name: E. Margaret Phillips. B.Sc. M.B.ChB.
Town and Province: Pingyen, Shantung.
Number of years hospital practice in China: 5 years
Number of different hospital patients seen in 1909: 3,000
How many cases of Albinism seen in hospital work? None
How many elsewhere? None.
Any cases heard of? One heard of in village 3 miles away (a female). Said to be not extremely uncommon here, though the sufferers remain in seclusion at home.
Have the Chinese any name for Albinism? If so what? [m.s. Chinese characters], Pai Kuán Tzŭ
Have the Chinese any idea as to the cause of A.? The Chinese attribute it to some disease or weakness of the mother during pregnancy.
Have you had the opportunity of questioning and examining any case of A.? (If so, please give details under B.) No
Have any cases of pied Albinism or other deficiency of pigmentation come under your notice? We frequently notice here slighter degrees of deficiency of pigmentation, i.e. light brown instead of black hair.
Can you procure photographs of any cases of deficient or anomalous pigmentation? No
B.
1. Questions.
...
Photograph: (Alongside a normal native.)
Please post at your early convenience to Dr. McAll, or to Dr. A. H. Skinner, Hankow.'
[in Usher’s hand: ‘Received from A.H.S. Nov. 7. 1910. Aberdeen.’]
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Created
H.S. Houghton et. al. Survey Schedule 'As to Frequency of Albinism in China.'
From 1908 to 1912
Description:
‘As to Frequency of Albinism in China.
A.
Doctors Name: Henry S. Houghton
Town and Province: Wuhu, Anhui.
Number of years hospital practice in China: Four
Number of different hospital patients seen in 1909: 16,000
How many cases of Albinism seen in hospital work? None
How many elsewhere? One or two, at most.
Any cases heard of? Yes, the condition is known
Have the Chinese any name for Albinism? If so what? [m.s. Chinese characters, ‘(P.T.O.)’]
Have the Chinese any idea as to the cause of A.? [m.s.:] (P.T.O.) [overleaf: ‘The characters given are the colloquial common name “Yang-tèo-tài,” and the meaning implied is a metempsychosis (the goat or long haired sheep to man) [note: ‘Received from A.H.S. – Nov. 7 – 1910. Aberdeen [illeg.])’]]
Have you had the opportunity of questioning and examining any case of A.? (If so, please give details under B.) No
Have any cases of pied Albinism or other deficiency of pigmentation come under your notice? No
Can you procure photographs of any cases of deficient or anomalous pigmentation? No
B.
1. Questions.
Pedigree as far as possible (e.g. by making out a family tree of relationships, showing sexes at age of death, and cause of death). The more extensive the pedigree the better. All information is desired bearing on whether Albinism is or is not the expression of a prevalence of scanty pigmentation in a particular stock. Hence the importance of the following:-
In the family has there been:- (a) any Intermarrying, e.g., of cousins?
(b) any Peculiarities as to colour of hair or eyes?
as to Fecundity.
as to General Physical or Mental Vigour.
(c) any defect other than Pigmentation.
2. Examination.
Colour of skin:- Presence, Description and Distribution of Pigment Spots and Freckles.
Hair colour:- Scalp. Eyebrows.
Eyelashes. Body-hair.
Eyes: Colour of iris Of pupil
Can any red be seen in the pupil?
Is there pigment at Corneal Margin?
“ “ “ in the Conjunctiva?
Nystagmus? Strabismus? Photophobia?
State of Vision? Any Abnormal Refraction?
Is the Pigment of the Retina Defective?
“ “ “ of the Choroid Defective?
Photograph: (Alongside a normal native.)
Please post at your early convenience to Dr. McAll, or to Dr. A. H. Skinner, Hankow.’
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Created
K. Pearson, Lecture on Albinism (at the Royal Institution) (c.1909).
1909
Description:
Lecture on Albinism in Man I (c.1909).
‘The supplies to the joint circular of Mr Nettleship & myself were fairly copious and in conjunction with the literature we have been able to engrave nearly 600 pedigrees of albinotic human stocks covering upwards of 1500 cases of albinism in every variety of race and almost every land.’ (f.2)
In highlighting the most prominent contributors to the study: ‘I would refer [especially] to the excellent photographic work of Dr. G.A. Turner of Johannesburg among the Mytopi[?] and Kaffir boys. This is of peculiar interest as showing the transition of the negro to blondism [sic], to partal and ultimately to complete albinism. There have been many others to whom we owe much aid...’ (f.3)
‘In India the albino may have been an outcaste, refused the customary rites on death; in South Africa, he may be treated as unlucky & other “boys” refuse to work with him; but in Loango & parts of Western Africa, we find him the chosen confident [sic] of kings, the purist, the man who may take from any one what he needs or pleases without fear of opposition for as the negroes say “God has created the albino but like the white not like the black in order that he may live without work.”’ (f.3)
‘I think there is some evidence to prove that albinism is more frequent now-a-days than it could have been in the 18th century. Pilgrimages to see individual albinos, learned monographs before scientific societies and papers in the medical journals reporting the discovery of new cases are hardly possible in the 20th century, and I am inclined to think that the relative frequency of albinism in Europe now is greater than it was a few centuries ago. There is, I believe, a considerable correlation between at least one group of albinos and marked physical delicacy, and in this case the lessening of the intensity of the struggle for existence has notably increased the frequency of other less robust types of man. White animals, Lord Bacon has told us, were in his day dis-allowed by the agriculturist and the breeder on account of their delicacy and at present the white shorthorn cattle finds its way first into the meat market.’ (f.5)
Albinism not noticed until the slave trade: ‘Europe got excited about albinism owing to the discovery of white and piebald negroes. The capture of negroes for slaves in Africa and the breeding of slaves in America led to the discovery that the Ethiopian can change his skin. Slave owners were startled by some of their negroes going white in patches which spread until the whole body, hair and skin became as white as in the case of a European. This change in the bulk of cases is accompanied by no pain, and is not confined to the negro; we find it in the European, the Asiatic and the Arab as well. It is termed by the medical profession leucoderma, and has been supposed to be a pathological condition or disease acquired during life. The existence of piebald negroes and whites has been attributed by some to leucoderma. The inheritance, however, of the piebald condition, and the birth of persons with congenital white patches is much against this hypothesis.’ (f.6)
‘The transition from ‘complete’ albinism to partial albinism is so gradual that there is the utmost difficulty in stating where the line is to be drawn. There is no definite test which has yet been applied to determine whether the skin is or is not definitely free of pigment. The hair of nearly all human albinos shows diffused pigment. A sweeping statement that [13-14] the hair of albinos is ‘white’ is simply misleading.’ (ff.13-14)
‘I want to emphasis the fact that there is almost every grade of albinism, and this not only in intensity, but in the extent to which it affects the whole of the skin, the hair or the eyes.’ (f.15)
‘It is not certain... at present, to what extent these [aforementioned] native albinos with black pupils & blue or gray eyes, are albinotic so far as the pigmentation of the various parts of the eye is concerned. What is certain is that they form a remarkable contrast to their racial fellows; they very often exhibit little or no photophobia or nystagmus, and the skin is as white and as little unpleasant as that of a European child. The bearing of this class of albinos on certain race problems seems to me to have been too much disregarded. It wanted, I believe, a large collection of photographs, such as we have now brought together to get some real insight into the problem.
Let me put it to you from the historical standpoint. The white man distinguishes himself fundamentally by colour from the black man. The black man was a being of a different order who might be treated as chattel. The fundamental distinction was not – as it might have been [-] of intelligence – but one of skin. A black slave was possible, but not a white. The appearance of white offspring to black parents was a phenomenon which created very great excitement [18-19] and curiosity throughout Europe. Not a little of this took in pre-Darwinian days a strange theological form. There were grave discussions as to whether Adam was black or white, just as there were such discussions as to whether Hebrew was his tongue. There was no second Tower of Babel to account for difference of colour. How did a portion of the progeny of Adam become copper-coloured and black? The discovery of the negro-albino came as a revelation. The birth of a white child to negro parents was a demonstration that the original Adam was white, such cases were to be put down as a statistic; as reversions on the part of the negro to his original type. The philosopher Maupertius discusses this problem at some length, and settles in favour of white Adam, laying stress on the white reversions in the negro race. The Abbé Demanet[?] wrote a long dissertation in 1767 to prove that Adam & Eve were white & that there were no black or red men before the deluge, because no one had wandered into torrid zones. After the Tower of Babel man scattered & moved into hot climates, which altered the skin colour, and the mothers by flattening their children’s noses & so forth gave them the acquired [19-20] peculiarities which we see in the dark races as inherited characters. The appearance of the white negro is a sufficient proof that black is only a hereditary variety of white. The whole discussion is sufficiently amusing, but there is in all seriousness a real problem behind it all, summed up in the human desire for unity & simplicity of origin. In post-Darwinian times are we to look upon the three fundamental types of man as evolved at three different times or centres, and if so form a common proto-type or not? Was the man-like ancestor in skin colour nearer to the white, the copper, or the black races? How if that ancestor had originally something approaching a white or a copper skin might we not anticipate that white & other races would occasionally “mutate” in the black direction? We know that partial albinism in the black & copper races presents us over and over again with skins which alone could hardly be differentiated from the European.’ (18-20)
‘I think we may safely say that no evidence will be easily found free of suspicion which shows the birth of black offspring to white parents. To my mind this does not indicate that white is the original skin colour of a manlike ancestor, it seems to me to point to loss of colour as a possible mutation in a coloured race, and that if we have to look for a single origin of the human race, the manlike ancestor must have had a dark skin, one far more like the negro than the European white. This seems [22-23] consonant also with what we know of white animals which are scarcely the primary types of the races in which they appear.
Poesche[?] emphasising the Baconian view of the delicacy of white animals has also deduced the white man from the dark. He looks upon blondism as a disease acquired by the present European races in coming westward from Asia in the swamps of Russia – presumably the inheritance of an acquired character. I do not see that we gain anything by terming any form of albinism pathological, unless we mean to assert that complete albinism is a great hindrance to healthy enjoyment of life under our existing environment. But the possibility of a wide range of pigment variation occurring in the black races from the dead white of the albino, to the rosy white of the European, to the copper of the oriental and to the red of the Indian appears indisputable; and this range of variants does not occur in the white or copper races of man. It seems a reasonable hypothesis therefore that the manlike ancestors of man were closer to the negro in colour than to the dark races. “Can the [23-24] Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?” Surely the answer must be yes, if we start from the knowledge of the white negro, and bear in mind the evolution from earlier types. The xanthous negress, the partial albinos of the dark races are after all, perhaps, of more importance than the white hedgehog or albino weasel of the museums; they may not be merely passing sports, the playthings of the monograph writers and the stock in trade of the showman. They may possibly indicate the line of descent, which our own ancestry has followed. Darwin believed that the skin colour of the races of mankind has arisen by sexual selection. He speaks of the jet-blackness of the negro being gained by sexual selection (Descent of Man, p. 604). He is not very definite on the point as to what measure of lightness the manlike being had from which the races of man were differentiated by sexual selection. I throw out the suggestion that the “subhuman” had a dark skin, whose variants towards albinism have given us the copper and European races. The white man may be an offshoot of a negroid ‘subhuman’, but the negro as obtained [24-25] by sexual selection [24-25] from a white ancestry seems to me wholly improbable. Those intermediate links between dark skinned races and their complete albinos, those stages which I have endeavoured to show you are congenital & inherited, those cases of partial albinism, which the superficial student of living forms may pass by as merely pathological and of no moment, may, I suggest, be the key which unlocks one puzzle, as to the possibly unique origin of the races of man.’
Lecture on Albinism in Man II:
‘Whether the offspring of two human albinos would always be an albino we do not know. It might mean that some generations of selection were needful to establish a race of albino men. With two albinos each born of non-albinotic parents give albinotic offspring, Mr. Nettleship has the extreme good fortune, and, if I may say so, the anxious responsibility of being the owner of three albino dogs. If he can create a race of albino dogs he will have added much to our knowledge. Still greater bearing on the case of man might be deduced from the story of the albino monkeys, complete typical albinos, which used to be preserved in the stalls of the less complete albino elephants of Siam. Wide is the range of occurrence in mammals and birds... [3-4]... but... it is but rarely that an albino breed has been established.... The white mouse & the white rat have survived as domesticated races, but would they have done so in wild life?’ (ff.3-4)
Re: difficulty of differentiating races on basis of their colour/hair/skeletal characteristics: ‘Cranial characters are again very difficult. A series of negro skulls can be distinguished at once from a series of European skulls, but there are no definite craniometric tests by which the negro skull can be at once separated from a mixture. Quite recently a distinguished anatomist gave such tests, but applying them to a large collection of English skulls almost 20 p.c. of the English were demonstrated by this test to be negroes! You cannot be certain of many negroid skulls whether they are certainly negroid or not, although the average characters differ. As a matter of fact, it is a “general appreciation” by which a skull is said to be negroid, and only in very definite cases can we be absolutely certain that a skull picked from a mixed series is negroid. There are many negro skulls which if placed in a European series would pass & many European skulls which if placed in a negro collection would also pass. The craniological differences are not nearly so distinctive as the colour differences, and if the skin can be mutable, the skull need not present itself as an insuperable difficulty in the way of evolution of the white from the black...'
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Created
W.A. Dobson et. al., Survey Schedule 'As to Frequency of Albinism in China.'
From 1908 to 1912
Description:
‘As to Frequency of Albinism in China.
A.
Doctors Name: W.A. Dobson
Town and Province: Yeingking[?].
Number of years hospital practice in China: 13
Number of different hospital patients seen in 1909: 2,000
How many cases of Albinism seen in hospital work? One
How many elsewhere? None
Any cases heard of? no
Have the Chinese any name for Albinism? If so what? No general name
Have the Chinese any idea as to the cause of A.? Blank
Have you had the opportunity of questioning and examining any case of A.? (If so, please give details under B.)
Have any cases of pied Albinism or other deficiency of pigmentation come under your notice? Vitiligo many cases.
Can you procure photographs of any cases of deficient or anomalous pigmentation? Not now. Those I have seen in Vitilga differ in no respect from cases at home,
B.
1. Questions.
Pedigree as far as possible (e.g. by making out a family tree of relationships, showing sexes at age of death, and cause of death). The more extensive the pedigree the better. All information is desired bearing on whether Albinism is or is not the expression of a prevalence of scanty pigmentation in a particular stock. Hence the importance of the following:-
In the family has there been:- (a) any Intermarrying, e.g., of cousins?
(b) any Peculiarities as to colour of hair or eyes? not able to give you this [response also covers (c) below]
as to Fecundity.
as to General Physical or Mental Vigour.
(c) any defect other than Pigmentation.
2. Examination.
Colour of skin:- Presence, Description and Distribution of Pigment Spots and Freckles. White & pink.
Hair colour:- Scalp. Yellow white Eyebrows. Yellow white
Eyelashes. d[itt]o Body-hair. d[itt]o
Eyes: Colour of iris bluish grey Of pupil reddish
Can any red be seen in the pupil? yes
Is there pigment at Corneal Margin? slight
“ “ “ in the Conjunctiva? none
Nystagmus? No Strabismus? Slight Photophobia? some
State of Vision? ? Any Abnormal Refraction? ?
Is the Pigment of the Retina Defective? Did not examine
“ “ “ of the Choroid Defective? “ “ “
Photograph: (Alongside a normal native.)
Please post at your early convenience to Dr. McAll, or to Dr. A. H. Skinner, Hankow.
Case was seen years ago’
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Created
Wool Matches of Coat Colour of Dogs
1911
Description:
‘a. 03 Oct. [1911] 21 days.
Ped. XI.8
Skin – Jill & Jack’s ♀ puppy B 28 Jan. D 19 Feb. [19]10.
Neither of these [samples] is quite right, both contain rather too much colour. General effect about right when coat looked at from tail towards head = hairs casting shadows.
“A” in P.56.125.
13 Aug. 11.’
‘a. 03 Oct. 6 Mo[nth]s.
Ped. XI.9
Largest skin = Fi P.56.125
B.28 Jan 1910. D. [no date given]
Darkest part [of coat], = [illeg.] of proximal part of tail, is between these 2 lightest wools.
Darkest [sample] nearly = spectacle mark.
21 Aug. 11.’
‘a. 03 Oct. 5 wks.
Ped. XI.12
Skin of “Fum” brother of “Fi” B. 28[?] Jan [19]10 D. est 5 wks.
These 2 [samples] are a trifle too red but in shade are very near the specimen.’
‘b. 03 Oct. 51 days.
Ped. XII.8.
Skin of XII.8. – 9. B. 28 Oct. D. 18 Dec. 1909. Jack x Ting.
These 3 about match different parts.
Darkest = spectacle mark.
21 Aug. 11.’
‘This nearly matches Jack’s back immediately after he had been washed.
25th Aug. 1911. It is if anything not quite dark enough.’
‘Fo. Ped. XI.11. Born 28th Jan 1980. Coat matched 22nd Aug. 1911.
Fo spectactle mark. A very near match.
Fo, general coat is between these two [samples].
He had been washed separately the day before.’
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Sent
C.H. Usher to K. Pearson, 17th Jan. 1912.
17 Jan 1912
Description:[re: photos of dogs; a proof (of Albinism?)]
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Sent
E. Nettleship to K. Pearson, 27th Feb. 1913.
27 Feb 1913
Description:
‘My dear Nettleship,
The dog Mor bahn will be sent through tomorrow (Friday) in a hamper from Langdon Road. Great Western to Haslemere via Reading. She is an “extracted” albino & it will be of great interest to know whether she will breed true. She has an ugly head but is rather a fine dog. I am sending her rather early as one is not quite clear as to the length of heat in a young bitch of 9 months.
The key will be forwarded with the basket you will please let me have all details of cost & I will send a cheque. I am awfully sorry to bother you in the matter, but it is owing to difficulties about Wee Ling, he is such a friend of my family that they can’t stand my parting with him & I have no albino dog that I can use at present.
I think it will be best to have Mor bahn to Hampstead for a but when you have done with her. I hope you will get her at the right time, but Miss Stanton is a [sic] I expect rather a novice in dog breeding.
All your data & letters to hand. Your M.S. to press, but I have still got to complete ‘lists’ etc & incorporate all Usher’s mass of data.
Yours very sincerely,
Karl Pearson.
Perhaps Mor bahn could come up some day when you come to town & I could have you met at Waterloo?’
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Sent
K. Pearson so M.S. Pearson, 13th Dec. 1916.
13 Dec 1916
Description:
‘My dearest Wife
...
Helga & Egon both as usual last night & not too depressed as we all shall be tonight without Ling. I feel the parting badly and I expect Helga will be very bitter about it, but I do not see that we could go on with him alone all day and more than ever self-willed. I took him down to the R. Vet. Coll. today & Prof. McQueenie is going to give him a merciful death. I feel as if a big piece of one had gone! We have found somebody to take Meg’s daughter today & she is to go to Ireland, so that this will reduce our dogs to 10, the fewest we have had for a long span.
I trust you will not be disappointed in Sigrid’s state, but she is not a person who paints the worst and I fear she may be less fit than she writes. Her letter showed no sign of her in the least anticipating your visit.
Ever your loving husband,
K.P.’
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Sent
K. Pearson to E. Nettleship, 10th Aug. 1910.
10 Aug 1910
Description:
‘My dear Nettleship,
Very hearty thanks for your kind letter. I am very sorry about Heron. He is rather remiss in returning things & since he has been away in Germany – I think he is in Lübeck at present – there has eben a librarian up from one of the libraries where he had not returned borrowed books. Is it[?] anything urgent, or can it wait until September? If the former I will find his address & forward to you.
The pedigree of my pups is as follows, wrong way up:
[pedigree diagram]
You will see that 4 of great grandparents were albinos, 2 black Poms & two the parents of your Jack normal Pekingese. Usher has got also what he calls a red black, but I am not sure that it is not my mostly black or whether it is a real Pekinese coat. All I can say is that you will find it very difficult to make the results fit Mendelism & that we ought to press forward with these experiments to see what they do fit.
I should be glad of any advice from Mr Gray if you can get. My idea is that the rent of a kennel near London would be £25, perhaps £30; there would be £40 probably for attendance, food, taxes etc £25 to £30., and possibly some initial cost. I expect it would cost £100 a year. I have been considering how much I could take from my Eugenics & Biometric Funds for the purpose[.] The great question worth deciding is whether or not any of the new types will be stable. If we got the black dogs stable, we should almost pay our way! But apart from this, I think I might try for a couple of years, if I could find the “kennel.” I should be able to take £60 to £90 perhaps from my funds & find remainder myself. Will you think me taking your work too much if I do?
Yours very sincerely,
Karl Pearson.’
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Sent
K. Pearson to E. Nettleship, 10th Aug. 1911.
10 Aug 1911
Description:
‘My dear Nettleship,
Cornaz has nothing profitable about dogs. He includes “le chien domestique” in his list, but the footnote to it is:
“Il paraît que le chien est rarement affecté d’albinisme; la plupart des observations alées à ce rujet out tres à des individus qui avaient des yeux various, c’est-à-dire à iris blancs, étal dont l’analogie avec la leucose et loin d’etre démontrée.”
Text, p. 288 & footnote p. 289.
This is all that I know in Cornaz.
...’
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Sent
K. Pearson to E. Nettleship, 10th Jan. 1909.
10 Jan 1909
Description:
‘...
I fear Tong has definitely failed this time. She has grown rather stout, but I think this has nothing to do with it.
I have just got back & will see about the hair of the spectacle mark. If I cannot find the right person, it shall come back
Yours very sincerely,
Karl Pearson
...’
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Sent
K. Pearson to E. Nettleship, 10th Jan. 1910.
10 Jan 1910
Description:
‘My dear Nettleship,
I do not at all agree with you about bubbles being pricked re these Pekingese spaniels (please tell me if that is the right description for photograph on plates). I think it a most valuable confirmation of results that we can get in the higher mammals like conclusions for those known for mice.
Now about the mice, there exist at least two cases – this in confidence & please don’t let it go further – in Weldon’s series of extracted albinos giving some coloured offspring. I cannot published [sic] these cases, because they would certainly be put down to carelessness in the record & the mating. But there they are & in default of any knowledge of what he thought about the matter I can do nothing but hope some day to report the exact crosses which led up to this result. Anyhow they weigh sufficiently on my mind for me to believe that the crossing of the extracted albinos is a gain & worth testing for every available species.
Further you have not the least idea how slender much of the work on rats & even mice is! Also please remember this: no one has worked on the pedigrees of these dogs scientifically & such pedigrees are of much value. Of your bitches cast only albino pups you will have evidence that albinism breeds true in a much higher type than has yet been dealt with.
Now my suggestion is this[,] that you should give me a brief paper with the pedigree for Biometrika, pointing out the problem you are attacking the creating of an albino race of dogs, and further indicating the need for collecting careful colour pedigrees of these dogs. This might be circulated in offprint to all known owners & you would soon have any number of pedigrees, if a request for them accompanied this offprint (I assume there is not yet a studbook for this dog?). From the material thus obtained we could use what we planned for the main paper, or publish separately a bigger treatment than will there be possible. I think further a reproduction of the dogs & this advertisement would enable you rapidly to dispose of any pups you may get from your bitches & recoup yourself for your outlay. If all are albinos, I should dispose of pups in pairs, and exact a promise of record & maintenance of purity i.e. albinism.
Yours K.P.
I have been much worried about the albino plates. They have come out not 10 p.c. but at least 50 p.c. worse than proofs & I have a big row on.’
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Sent
K. Pearson to E. Nettleship, 12th Sept. 1910.
12 Sep 1910
Description:
‘...
We shall shortly know Tong’s fate. But I think there are no pups. But she rather seems to anticipate them herself!
I will write again to Clack, about Wee Tong.
I asked Usher to remember me, if he had a bitch, so I won’t mention it again; I sent him a deaf semi-albinotic cat recently white coat, one eye blue & the other with some pigment. Rather a curious eye the second was.
...’
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Sent
K. Pearson to E. Nettleship, 13th Jan. 1909.
13 Jan 1909
Description:
‘...
I have still as desirable things [for the monograph]:
(a) the scale of albino hairs. This certainly ought to be done, but I cannot at present give what the engravers ask £40. It looks very striking. I will throw it on the screen at the Royal Institution (which I don’t recommend you to be, because I am not capable just now of doing anything effectively), so that you may see how desirable it is to complete Scott’s work.
...’