A family of spotted Negroes

Abstract

IT is the purpose of this note to put on record an interesting variation in human skin color which made its appearance as a mutation or sport in a negro family of the southern United States some sixty years ago and has shown itself fully hereditary through two generations of offspring. The nature of the variation is shown in Figs. 1-4. It consists of a piebald condition of the skin, which is spotted with white in a fairly definite pattern, not2 unlike that of certain domesticated animals. A moreor-less continuous white area begins on the top of the head, which has a crest of white hair, extends down over the face (where, however, it may be interrupted) and broadens out on the chest, which is either entirely white or finely mottled. In the whitest individuals the chest area extends around the sides of the body on to the back (see Fig. 4), but fails to reach the mid-dorsal line. It also extends on to the arms in like proportion to its extension elsewhere on the body, but the lower forearm and hands, like the feet, are in all observed cases dark. The ventral white area continues downward from the waist line, and in at least one case (Fig. 4) covers the legs, which are nearly free from black spots down to the knees. There larger and more numerous specks of black begin, which become continuous above the ankles. If we should describe the pattern in terms of its black