‘Dear Mr Nettleship,

... [re: photographs of Norwegian hares]...

Yesterday some albino notes with three very good photos of Chinese albinos arrived from Hankow from Dr Skinner. I sent them all, at once, to K.P.

Souter wrote to Skinner some months ago asking for albino information & gave him an idea of what was wanted. Skinner has gone into the matter wholesale & has sent to a number of people in China a paper with printed questions etc:

At the foot of this paper, & this is what I am leading up to, he brings in something which leads one to suppose that these papers have been sent out by him certainly, but that the enquiry is being made by the Ophthalm. Soc. (London). This is very annoying. I have asked Souter about it & he says he cannot understand how he invented this pary, for he (Souter) simply told Skinner that I (C.H.U.) with others in London were working at albinism and wanted information from China.

Souter has written to tell him of his error. I don’t suppose any real harm had been done, none the less it is nasty.

Yours sincerely,

C.H. Usher.’

‘Dear Mr Nettleship,

The pup photo enlargements will be seen to at once.

The enclosed photos [four enclosed] are not pretty, but you will get some notion of the last two litters from them. They would enlarge I should say.

It is likely that the first litter died partly because the mother was in a cart shed separated off by wire only from 3 or 4 other pairs of dogs & I expect when she made a noise at pupping time the other dogs would bark & this probably disturbed her. This must be avoided another time. The albino pup of the 2nd litter was evidently suffocated.

The other pups have not been examined, only opened sufficiently after skinning to let formalin into them. It is very interesting to dind a patent foramen ovale & the pups here will be examined carefully as regards that point. In one pup the orbits were imperfectly developed and no eyes could be discovered.

The skins are cleaned of fat etc. as far as possible & then stretched by aid of tacks which fix them to a board. The hair surface is next [to?] the board. The board is [continued, not present in photographs]’

‘Dear Mr Nettleship,

Albinism. I examined today a new member of the pedigree from which the hair plate in the memoir was made.

A male, born 13^th Aug. 1912, seen 15^th Aug. 1912. Hair silvery white lashes brows white; skin fair; eyes wide open no nystagmus (doctor saw them open yesterday) fundus very pale, O.W.[?] darker than rest of fundus... Ps red; iris grey & transluscent. Retinoscopy with Ps dilated after [illeg.] once:

R + (+6) (+12) L + (+8) (+12) This result with lenses held in left hand, arm stretched to its fullest, child suckling its mother all the time, she kept a lid depressed when necessary. The doctor held the lamp & I think the results quite reliable in so far as it can be in an infant which does not fix or only fixes occasionally. There is obviously a marked degree of astigm.

There was wonderfully little difficulty in getting the result; I was quite prepared to get nothing in this 2 days old infant.

Milne (Longside[?])  diabetes ped. card from Dr Wood to-night “forging ahead.” [?]

Yours sincerely,

C.H. Usher.’

‘I should say that the pup photos would enlarge quite well – Please say what size you would like them. The first Pompek x Pompek family arrived a few days ago 4♀ 1♂, all are “black”, some red tinge probably & all have white spot on chest. A second litter of another Pompek – Pompek expected to-day.

C.H.U.’

‘Dear Mr Nettleship,

Foramen ovale in pups.

I have looked at 12 hearts, including the 5 pups of Buna dhu (28^th Oct./12) & 2 pups of Yfa dhu (1 Nov./12). In 10 the foramen ovale is patent[?]. The 2 pups in which it was closed were 11 days & 2 ½ months old. From the appearance of the patent foramen ovale in some instances at any rate I should suppose it quite possible that it is really mechanically closed during life by blood pressure altho it is not organically closed.

Is the foramen ovale closed at birth in normal pups?

C.B. [illeg.] thank you for your list.

McLeod of McLeod. Yes, you sent what you had got some time ago. From peerage books the tree was traced back some way but nothing was done by me in trying to get at living members. I notice that in what you send now a note “from Burke’s landed gentry of Gt. Britain (1906) p. 1100” in which “it appears that: - I was the 21^st chief b.1788...; his mother was Anne daughter of John Stephenson of Kent.” I have it that this Anne was his wife (not mother). His mother was Sarah Stackhouse. I shall, of course, look this matter up again when I get that length.  Don’t bother about this point at the moment, for probably you have now given me both your copies & are left with your original notes only.

Did I say that the albino baby which had a retinoscopy done at age of 2 days developed nystagmus some time ago & the doctor thinks that he (! she) will not live!

Yrs sincerely,

C.H. Usher.’

‘Dear Mr Nettleship,

Two dog photos [enclosed] which I think you have not got. If there are any others that you have not got please let me know.

Have you “Idiot” (Donald ban) & his mother Mairi[?] bahn[?]

Do you think the “liver” & cream skin would have changed to a uniform colour?

It is a pity there is a slight doubt as to paternity of the litter, in any case both dogs were albino, cream coloured Pekinese with albinotic eyes father & son.

Yrs sincerely,

C.H. Usher.’

‘Dear Mr Nettleship,

You may care to have these [c. 9, enclosed] photos of descendants of Jack for your album of descendants of Jack & Jill.

Yours sincerely,

C.H. Usher.

No doubt the man in the photo can be got rid of somehow.’

‘Dear Mr Nettleship,

“Single ovum twins”. Low has given a reference & enclosed is his letter [not present].

Dogs: Mairi bhan had to be killed, she was thin for months & had vaginal discharge. There were about 2 ounces of pus in uterus containing a nearly pure culture of streptococcus; no remains of an abortion present & rest of body healthy.

New litter of Pom-pek black bitch & alb. Pekinese dog in Edinburgh. There are 5 pups all ♀, two are black; 2 are piebald, genuine white & black & one is cream colour, like the other albino Pekinese, with patches of pale liver colour. Two have died a piebald & the cream colour one. I have seen these two the former has a brown iris, the latter grey with red pupils. The dark patches have a similar arrangement in each dog, that is where the black patches are in the black & white dog the pale liver colour patches are on the cream coloured dog.  Their heads are like Pekinese. The two Pompek bitches here will be mated to Pompek dogs when old enough.

Yours sincerely,

C.H. Usher.’

‘Dear Mr Nettleship,

The second litter of Pompek x Pompek has arrived 2 black ♀ & an albino ♂. In the two litters every pup has a white patch on its chest. It occurs in the albino male whose coat in other respects is exactly like the pekinese albinos. His nose is long thus resembling the pom;- the black coats, some if not all, have faint red tint. The mortality is disappointing. The litter of 5 came 4 days too early.

Yrs. sincerely,

C.H. Usher.’

[enclosed with above: envelope containing 6 photographs of dead pups. ‘Usher’s Pompeks. The dead litters. Enlargements. Recd. Nov. 1912.’]

‘Dear Mr Nettleship,

Spook’s and Idiot’s 3rd litter arrived on 26th February & consists of three bitches all of them albinos with cream coloured coats. Two died within 24 hours & their eyes are transluscent, pupil red & iris grey.

Yrs sincerely,

C.H. Usher.’

‘Dear Pearson,

A few dog notes –

1. Beenie’s two black male pups. One has now a distinct red tinge quite different from the black coat of the other. The chocolate pup I should say has become lighter.

2. Dido (black pom) x Donald ban (Pek albino).

Litter of 3 pups to-day.

All have black coats.

Not examined as regards sex or details of coat.

3. Spooks x Princes litter seen to-day. All doing well, none of the coats could be called quite black. I should say that they all had some red, some of them undoubtedly so.

4. Another litter expected in 10 days or so of Pompek x Pompek.

I am afraid that the final measurement of Froach, notwithstanding the correction of the half inch blunder, has given you a lot of work.

Very cold here just now both for pups & human beings.

Yrs sincerely,

C.H. Usher.’

‘... [re: dog photographs]...

Your coming litter by Donald dhu, very good.

I have a new ♀ Pekinese expected to be in season at once. She is to be mated with a black Pom.

Yours sincerely,

C.H. Usher.’

[enclosed in above:]

Cutting from The People, 5th May 1912:

‘At East Bergholt, Suffolk, a nest containing four young white blackbirds has been found. A single young one of pure white may occasionally be found in a nest, while adult birds quite frequently moult white, but four albinos is, to say the least, decidedly uncommon. I have never seen such myself, and so far as I am aware it has never previously been recorded. A photo has, I understand, been sent to another department of this paper, but I shall be pleased to receive a print, and it will be of farther interest to us to know whether either of the parent birds show any signs of white, but the only way to ascertain this would be to catch the adults and place in a large aviary. The Curator of Birds at the Zoo would, I think, be pleased to furnish the necessary accomodation if otherwise unobtainable.’

‘Dear Pearson,

Bertha and Kenneth arrived this morning in excellent condition and the first impression was the similarity of coat colour. I have been on leave for a few days and only got your letter about 7.45 last night so had no time to say that the dogs would be met.

If you have no new homes for any of your evicted dogs, please let me know & I shall enquire whether any can be housed any where here.

The basket will be returned.

Yrs Sincerely,

C.H. Usher.

P.S. Garthonzie, an albino Pekingese, has a whole row of eye lashes on lower lids rubbing against the cornea.

Mairi dhu (x another Pom-Pek) is about to have a litter. She is the mother of the Piebald, which is turning into an attractive dog.

C.H.U.’

‘Dear Pearson,

Thank you for the cheque. It will be used for the dogs. I am trying to get at their eyes just now. A macroscopic examination of Sheila’s (251) fundus shows little or no pigment. You had noticed that the pupil reflex during life was different from that of the usual dog eye.

I am in some difficulty in knowing what to do with Seamus (Robin) No. 327 from Dondo & white Pom. his coat may be what you called golden red sable, he was an only pup and mated with Bertha[?] producing a litter of one albino and 3 chocolates. I have not yet looked at his fundus. If he is not required then he should be destroyed. He has the pom. nature. He is a fine looking dog.

Yours sincerely,

C.H. Usher.’

‘Dear Pearson,

I am  very sorry that you are again in bed...

Yes, please send the pup here at any time. Spook is the only animal there is here at present. If the pup does not bark too much she will remain here, otherwise it will be sent to some other place quite easily.

...[re: photos of rats, monkey; visiting stoats, their cold living conditions]...’