Black Indian Research Articles

<b>Diversity and distribution of freshwater turtles (Reptilia: Testudines) in Goa, India</b>

Freshwater turtles symbolize a key component of biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems. Of the 356 living species of turtles and tortoises in the world, 34 species are recorded from India. The number of freshwater turtle and tortoise species found in the state of Goa, however, is debatable. No study specific to the Goa region has been carried out on freshwater turtles. Therefore, baseline data on diversity and distribution of freshwater turtles is scanty. The present study was conducted to address this lacuna in knowledge, which will further aid in identifying threats to the population of freshwater turtles and in devising appropriate methods for their conservation. The diversity and distribution of freshwater turtles was investigated in 186 sites in Goa from June 2012 to May 2015. A total of 337 specimens of two native and one introduced species of freshwater turtles belonging to three families—Trionychidae (Indian Flap-shell Turtle Lissemys puncata), Geomydidae (Indian Black Turtle Melanochelys trijuga) and Emydidae (Red-eared Slider Trachemys scripta elegans)— were identified. Melanochelys trijuga (52.23%) was the most widely and abundantly distributed species, and was recorded from 132 sites. L. punctata (46.88%) was recorded from 113 sites, while T. scripta elegans (0.89%) was rare and was recorded from only two sites. While Melanochelys trijuga is generalized in habitat selection, making it the widely distributed species in the State of Goa, L. punctata is more specific in habitat selection thus restricting its range to coastal, middle-level plateau and the foothills of Western Ghats.

Osteological Analysis of Indian Black Market Human Remains

When human skeletal remains are discovered, there is initially little knowledge or explanation of their background. Executing a thorough osteological analysis of human skeletal remains can identify unknown information and provide new knowledge. Skeletal remains purchased from India until 1985 are believed to stem from a “legal” grave-robbing bone trade. A set of human remains housed at WVWC’s human anatomy lab, purchased in the early 1960s, display an “Origin India” sticker. Due to the origination, we decided to analyze the human remains. The purpose of this study is to conduct a complete osteological analysis on this set of human remains. Data were collected using Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains and The Human Bone Manual. Specific bony features and abnormalities found during the analysis were compared to the given scientific norms to establish pathology. Preliminary anthropometric assessments show lumbosacral scoliosis. The remains appear to belong to a young adult (15-20) but age is difficult to infer due to post mortem alteration of the epiphyses. There is evidence of a potential calcium deficiency, which also affects epiphyseal fusion, which can alter age approximation. Sex appears ambiguous which supports the young age, but leaning male, based on the pubic symphysis and ventral arc. Bone remodeling around the sternum indicates fracture with complete healing. The tibiae show bowing; all articulations appear gracile, though some long bones show early osteoarthritis. Due to this controversial analysis, future research warrants a detailed computed tomography scan.

Importance of Breeding Ecology and Territorial Behaviour of Indian Black Robin (Saxicoloides fulicata leucoptera) for its Conservation

Indian Black Robin (Saxicoloides fulicata leucoptera) is one of the territorial bird found in scrub forest, rocky areas, open grasslands and near human residence and distributed throughout the country in all climatic zones. Breeding success of birds can be depended on the size of the territory. Territory size can be varying according to breeding season and different locations they occupied. Present study attempted to understand the breeding ecology and territorial behavior of black robin in both breeding and non-breeding seasons. The data were collected using scan sampling and focal animal sampling from 2014 to 2017 in adjacent to the Mihintale sanctuary. The behavioral and territory variations were checked by using a dummy of black robin. ArcGIS v10.3 and Minitab v17 were used for data analysis. The breeding season of black robin lasted nearly three months twice a year from March to June and July to September. Courtship behaviour was started beginning of April and nest building was performed by both male and female. The nest building period averaged 13.25±0.96 days. Ten nests were recorded within the study period whilst 4 of them were successful and 6 were pseudo nests. Nests were observed at different places such as rocky areas, rock fragments and joisters of resident places. The clutch size was 2-4 and eggs were whitish in background with small brownish blotches. Average incubation period was 11±3.4 days. Both male and female fed the chicks after hatching. Foraging sites were mostly nearby roads, human associated places and live foliage. As a percentage, male used to feed chicks 69.23% and female 30.77% within the observed period. There were 12 territories recorded within the study period. The territorial areas were changed according to the members of the group and the breeding season. Territory size ranged from 617 m2 to 5,050 m2 and smaller territories were recorded during the non breeding period while sizes were larger during the breeding period. Results suggest that this species require sufficient habitats to demarcate their territory and nesting. Hence maintain the gardens and shady areas are recommended to conserve this species in domestic areas. Keywords: Black Robin, Territory, Nests, Conservation

Pharmacological evaluation of phytochemicals from South Indian Black Turmeric (Curcuma caesia Roxb.) to target cancer apoptosis

Curcuma caesia Roxb. (Black turmeric), a perennial herb of the family Zingiberaceae is indigenous to India. C. caesia is used as a spice, food preservative and coloring agent commonly in the Indian subcontinent. Functional parametric pharmacological evaluations like drug ability and toxicity profile of this endangered species is poorly documented. In our present study, among all the extracts of dried C. caesia rhizome viz- hexane, ethyl acetate, methanol and water tested for free radical scavenging capacity by total antioxidant activity (TAO) method, Hexane Rhizome Extract (HRE) was found to possess remarkable activity (1200mg ascorbic acid equivalent/100g). In MTT assay across three cancer cell lines and a control cell line, HRE exhibited a dose-dependent inhibition only in cancer cells, with notable activity in HepG2 cell lines (IC50: 0976µg/mL). Further, western blotting and flow cytometry experiments proved that HRE induces cell arrest at G2/M phase along with cellular apoptosis as suggestive by multiple-point mitochondrial mediated intrinsic pathway of Programmed Cell Death (PCD). Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrophotometry (GC-MS) analysis of HRE suggested twenty compounds that when docked in silico with Tubulin (1SA0) and Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor/ EGFR (1XKK) showed very intimate binding with the original ligands. Our results provided significant evidence of the toxicity mechanisms of HRE that may be beneficial for more rational applications of drug discovery for slowing down cancer progression.

Breeding behavior of different raptor species in human modified landscape

Withaningsih S, Parikesit, Iskandar J, Megantara EN. 2017. Breeding behavior of different raptor species in human modified landscape. Biodiversitas 18: 1234-1242. Raptors are important birds which sensitive to environment and mostly used as best indicator for knowing the health of the ecosystem. The breeding period is a critical phase for raptors and seems to be difficult leading to the status of those birds as an endangered species. The nest site selection is of importance to the success of raptor nesting program. Of this reason, the use of human-modified landscape as one of nesting location for raptors, located in Panaruban and Telaga Warna landscape, West Java, Indonesia has been assessed to know the breeding behavior among raptors. The aim of the study was to analyze the nest site, nesting period, and nest placement of raptors in human-modified landscape in Panaruban and Telaga Warna. The relationship among raptor nest occurrences was analyzed using four circular buffers at distances of 250, 500, 750 and 1000 m around each nest-tree. Data was collected by descriptive analysis and Geographical Information System (GIS) mapping. The four species of raptors i.e. the Javan Hawk Eagle (Nisaetus bartelsi syn. Spizaetus bartelsi), the Changeable Hawk-eagle (Nisaetus cirrhatus syn. Spizaetus cirrhatus), the Crested Serpent Eagle (Spilornis cheela), and the Indian Black Eagle (Ictinaetus malaiensis) showed to select nesting sites in different places. The landscape structure at different scales around the nest may contribute to the varied characteristics of nest site selection. The raptors had a different time of the breeding period in the same landscape. These differences might be a part of the strategy to decrease competition among raptors.

Embodying an Imagined other through Rebellion, Resistance and Joy: Mardi Gras Indians and Black indigeneity

This article examines embodied double and triple consciousness expressed by African Americans who reflect Indigenous and transplanted African/Indian heritages while performing as Mardi Gras “Indians” in New Orleans. Moving beyond simplistic dichotomies of “Africanness” and “indigeneity,” Black Indians produce sustained historical and cultural identities which reinforce Afro-indigeneity to overcome oppressive conditions while creating a foundation for resilience. Mardi Gras Indians perform ritual parades and complex acts of resistance and joy—playfully appropriating and adapting African, Indian and American cultures to interrogate hybrid identities beyond Black/White paradigms. The playful ambiguities—and mocking stereotypical images of savage Indians and Africans—continue to be displayed through music, art and pop cultural expressions well into the post-Katrina era. An examination of Black Indians through a cultural-historical analysis sets the stage for a reassessment of popular culture and the HBO TV series Treme (Simon, 2010–2013)—specifically its use of fictive, triple-conscious imaginaries which give life to vibrant, joyful expressions of resistance.

Leadership Lessons from Communities of Color: Stewardship and Collective Action.

This chapter proposes a multicultural leadership model that reflects practices and principles from Black, Latino, and American Indian communities.

Low‐Temperature Extraction of Jamun Juice (Indian Black Berry) and Optimization of Enzymatic Clarification Using Box‐Behnken Design

AbstractExtracting juice from Jamun is difficult. The fruit consists a seed inside and cell wall consists of high amount of pectin‐protein bond which makes the pulp thicker. The Box‐Behnken design is a type of response surface design which is as useful as the central composite designs but avoiding treatment combinations that are in extreme. The objective of the study is to develop a process for optimization of process parameter to obtain Jamun juice using pectinase enzyme from the strain Aspergillus niger at different temperature (30–50°C), concentration (0.01–0.1% w/v) and time (40–120 min). Physical parameters (yield, turbidity, viscosity, clarity and color) and chemical parameters (polyphenol, protein, TSS and total solid) were evaluated as response variables. Significant regression models with a coefficient of determination (R2) was established with a value more than 0.9. The recommended enzyme for clarification of juice was 0.09% enzyme concentration at 33°C for 75 min.Practical ApplicationsThe juice of Jamun as well as the concentrate has a high‐therapeutic value. A fresh fruit contains all the nutrients needed for good health, but because it may not always be possible to obtain fresh food, preservation becomes necessary. The cell structure of fruit contains protein‐pectin bond and high amount of tannin. Due to this nature removal of juice is difficult. Using of enzyme to clarify the juice not only increase the yield but retained the original physicochemical properties of the juice. To get the juice through out the year and to help the diabetic people this study is useful.

Incarceration by Category: Racial Designations and the Black Borders of Indianness

Particular problems were created for “mixed” people in the United States with the development of race categories and ideologies based on hierarchies of color and blood. With “whiteness” favored above all else, mixed people often self‐identified with the more phenotypically European of their ancestors in spite of prohibitive legal sanctions. For the children of Africans, African Americans, and American Indians, options were more limited and their position within society far more liminal. Due to particular rules, laws, and practices in the United States, those who could identify as Indian rarely acknowledged African descent, while those categorized as black could seldom officially identify their indigenous roots. For many AfraAmerIndians, this resulted in forms of liminality within already contested categories. Referencing examples of AfraAmerIndians in exploring racial categories as a form of incarceration, this article explores the idea that race categories are more akin to incarceration than standard ideas of social control and examines the suggestion that the descendants of Native Americans and Africans and African Americans and other non‐white people of mixed ancestry may be particularly vulnerable. [African Americans, American Indians, black Indians, cultural anthropology, ethics, history and memory, identity, mixed race, racism]

Neighborhood Racial Composition, Institutional Socialization, and Intraracial Feelings of Closeness among Black Americans

Relying on nationally representative data from the most recent wave of the National Survey of Black Americans (NSBA), the current study examines how past and present neighborhood racial composition is associated with feelings of closeness toward black Americans, black Africans, and black West Indians. In addition, this research tests whether race-based socialization messages received from caregivers or religious socialization messages explain this relationship among a sample from the adult black US population. The findings show that past neighborhood composition is associated with present feelings of closeness toward black Americans and black West Indians but are not associated with close feelings toward black Africans. Current neighborhood racial composition is not associated with feelings of closeness toward any of the groups. Racial socialization messages are associated with closeness towards them all but are found to be largely a function of having a two-parent family during childhood. Religious socialization is also associated with intraracial feelings of closeness. Results suggest that neighborhood racial composition is important to help facilitate positive feelings toward others who share the same race but a different ethnicity.

Discrimination and Segregation: The Aboveground Victims of the Underground Bombings

This paper provides evidence that the 7/7 London Bombings promulgated the discrimination against Black African, Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani Muslim men in the capital of the United Kingdom. The discrimination hampered the affected group from working in high-paid occupations. As such, occupational segregation resulted, reducing their average hourly and weekly wages. This study also provides evidence that the attacks had adverse employment effect but little to no effect on weekly working hours, firm size, or employment mode for the aforementioned minority group. In addition, this paper reveals that the increased prejudice led to social segregation: the affected group (i) tended to attach to their ethnic group, and (ii) showed less interest in local affairs.

English in India and South Africa: Comparisons, Commonalities and Contrasts

This article offers a comparison of the history of English in India and South Africa, with special reference to its rise as a second language. As far as external history is concerned both territories show investment in a language whose use has long outlasted the colonial era, despite the concerns of leaders and scholars with a pro-indigenous language stance. The article focuses on comparing the grammatical characteristics of the second language varieties of English in India and South Africa, arising from the Mouton World Atlas of Variation in English. A comparison of relevant chapters in this work reveals close structural similarities between Indian English and Black South African English. Moreover, South African Indian English falls midway between the two in this typological survey.

Preventive role of Indian black pepper in animal models of Alzheimer's disease.

Dementia is the clinical symptom of alzheimer's disease. Brain cholinesterase levels and behavioural changes are the markers for Alzheimer's disease and aluminium chloride is one causative agent for polymerization of tau protein and amyloid plaque formation in Alzheimer's disease. Effect of piper nigrum and its role in prevention of alzhimer's disease and symptoms are well linked in this study. To study the effect of piper nigrum for the prevention of alzheimer's associated histopathological, biochemical and behaviour changes in rat model. Twenty four rats were taken in this study. Their baseline behavioural parameters were noted and group was separated randomly in four. Rats were pretreated with piper nigrum and Alzheimer's disease was induced. Biochemical and histopathological changes were noted at the end of experiment. There was marked decrease in cholinesterase level, amyloidal plaque formation in rats brain who were pretreated with piper nigrum. At the same time there was decrease in escape latency time (ELT) and increase in memory in piper treated rats. Piper nigrum prove to be effective for prevention of Alzheimer's disease. This finding has to be confirmed with studies including larger population. Further research on cholinesterase inhibitors, role of flavonoids on prevention of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease can be encouraged.

Adhesive mortars for stone plate bonding

This work addressed the properties of adhesive mortars and the comparative study of their use for stone plate bonding. Tests were performed on the tiles of eight types of “granites” to compare the adherence of well-known mortar brands on the market, specifically for granites. Thus, an adhesive porcelain mortar (with comparable production cost) was used, developed by researchers at the Institute of Architecture and Urbanism–University of Sao Paulo, in addition to three laboratory-developed porcelain-based mortars. The rocks chosen were: grey swallow (monzogranite), yellow ornamental (garnet porphyroblastic gneiss), red Brasilia (syenogranite), Black Sao Gabriel (hypersthene diorite), green labrador (charnoquite), fantastic blue (biotite monzogranite megaporphyritic serial gnaissified), black Indian (migmatite), and rose jacaranda (nebulitic migmatite syenogranite) They did not have similar petrographic and sawability characteristics that resulted in different initial roughness values of the plates obtained by breaking apart the blocks on the gangsaw machine. The machine used granulated steel as an abrasive element. The adherence of these rocks with the mortars was determined on the rough surface by the pullout traction test, standardized for ceramics. It was observed that the laboratory-developed mortars showed excellent adherence and flexibility qualities; larger contact surfaces provided greater physical interaction, since the extremely low porosity of the rocks under study limited the anchoring adhesion process (penetration of mortar through the pores).

Body linear traits for identifying prolific goats

Aim: The present study was conducted on prolific goat breed to identify body linear type traits that might be associated with prolificacy trait in goats. Materials and Methods: Two-stage stratified random sample survey based data were collected from 1427 non-pregnant goats with the history of single, twin and triplet litter sizes (LZ) between January 2008 to February 2011 for 3 years in 68 villages located in East and North East India. Data on sixteen body linear traits were analyzed using logistic regression model to do the step-wise selection for identifying the body linear traits that could determine LZ. An average value for each identified body linear trait was determined for classifying the goats into three categories: Goats having the history of single LZ, goats having the history of twin LZ and goats having the history of triplet LZ. Results: The LZ proportions for single, twin and triplet, were 29.50, 59.14 and 11.36%, respectively, with the prolificacy rate of 181.85% in Indian Black Bengal goats. A total of eight body linear traits that could determine LZ in prolific goats were identified. Heart girth (HG) measurement (>60.90 cm), paunch girth (PG) (>70.22 cm), wither height (WH) (>49.75 cm), neck length (>21.45 cm), ear length (>12.80 cm) and distance between trochanter major (DTM) bones (>12.28 cm), pelvic triangle area (PTA) (>572.25 cm 2 ) and clearance at udder (CU) (>23.16 cm) showed an increase likelihood of multiple LZ when compared to single LZ. Further, HG measurement (>62.29 cm), WH (>50.54 cm), PG (>71.85 cm) and ear length (>13.00 cm), neck length (>22.01 cm), PTA (>589.64 cm 2 ), CU (>23.20 cm) and DTM bones (>12.47 cm) were associated with increased likelihood of triplet LZ, when compared with that of twin LZ. Conclusion: HG measurement was the best discriminating factor, while PG, neck length, DTM bones, CU, PTA, WH and ear length measurements were other important factors that could be used for identifying prolific goats to achieve economic benefit out of prolificacy trait.

Rates of Beginning Teachers: Examining One Indicator of School Quality in an Equity Context

ABSTRACTThe authors use national data to examine variation in the proportion of beginning teachers in school districts across the United States by poverty, race, and urbanicity. In addition to being a proxy for teacher quality, the proportion of beginning teachers in a district also speaks to teacher turnover and therefore broader school quality issues. Findings suggest that districts with high-poverty levels; greater proportions of Black, Hispanic, and American Indian populations; and located in rural areas tend to have high percentages of novice teachers. This research provides insight into the persistent disparities in opportunity that confront children of poverty, color, and rural environments.

Jazz, The Second Line, and African American Religious Internationalism in New Orleans

This article explores the history and contemporary significance of African American religious internationalism in New Orleans through the popular religious traditions, identities, and performance forms celebrated in the second lines of the city's jazz street parades. The second line is the group of dancers who follow the first procession church and club members, brass bands and Black Indians. The second line theme allows me to investigate how African diasporic religious and musical identities from Haiti and West and Central Africa are re-imagined and circulated globally in New Orleans jazz and popular religious performances.

Chocolate and Corn Flour: History, Race, and Place in the Making of “Black” Mexico

Readers familiar with Laura Lewis’s acclaimed Hall of Mirrors: Power, Witchcraft, and Caste in Colonial Mexico (2003) may be surprised to find that her new book is not another foray into colonial Mexican history but an anthropological, ethnographic study of a present-day Mexican community. This should not really be surprising, as Lewis is an anthropologist by training and academic appointment, and indeed this monograph is based on her doctoral dissertation. It is based on it but is far more than a mere revision of it, being rather the product of over a decade of fieldwork and two decades of study and labor: Lewis’s first fieldwork stay in the community upon which she focuses was in 1992.That community is San Nicolás, one of the larger of the dozens of “African-descent communities” in the Costa Chica, on Mexico’s Pacific coast (p. 2), and Lewis’s subjects are the San Nicoladenses, who “self-identify as morenos (black Indians) and reject labels such as ‘black,’ ‘Afromexican,’ and ‘Afromestizo’ ” (p. 2). The book is thus a lengthy exploration of racial identity, built up through a rich reconstruction of the identities of San Nicoladenses, which “rest on a complex calculus of race, history, and custom. That calculus is situational, which makes it fluid and conciliatory rather than bounded and antagonistic” (p. 305).In the course of her research, Lewis soon discovered that many San Nicoladenses also live in the United States, adding migration to that complex calculus of identity. Amid such fluidity and mobility, an attachment to “homeplaces” holds the community of San Nicolás together, albeit in ways that sometimes seem tenuous; as Lewis puts it, “the instability and hybridity of migration and mixed racial identities actually make places that are as constant as the ground right before an earthquake” (p. 13). Following a chapter that weaves oral and archival sources into a brief history of the region, Lewis devotes four chapters (chapters 2 – 5) to aspects of race and identity in San Nicolás, especially the concept of “morenoness” (as she calls it). The perspectives of San Nicoladenses are her primary target, but they are deftly placed within the comparative context of the views of multiple types of outsiders — including, in one fascinating chapter of “intellectual history,” the influential interactions and impact of mid-twentieth-century scholars Mel-ville Herskovits and Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán. In the face of outsiders’ attempts to place San Nicoladenses in various black and mixed-race categories, the locals themselves have maintained a sense of moreno as including “Indianness” but excluding white roots. The result — as one chapter resoundingly concludes — “undermines the dominant national discourse of mestizaje” (p. 83). Gender is a constant theme in the book, and Lewis is always clear on how her own identity as a woman determined the relationships she developed with San Nicoladenses (most obviously, but not exclusively, with women in the town). However, gender comes even more to the fore in the final three chapters (chapters 6 – 8, which are followed by a conclusion). The first of these details how profoundly gender permeates life in San Nicolás, while the next two chapters show how issues of modernity and migration remain colored by the gendered organization and lives of San Nicoladenses. As Lewis takes us, along with the people she has studied, to the edge of the present and before a tentative future, she maintains a narrative richly textured with research and detail yet poignant and engagingly clear in its composition.This is not a book about colonial Mexico, as I remarked at the beginning of this review, and yet Lewis’s profound grasp of the complexities of ethnoracial identities in the colonial period seems to inform her analysis of San Nicoladenses today. Likewise, her understanding of the “situational” and “fluid” character of identities in San Nicolás speaks to the nature of mixed-race identities in colonial times. For that reason alone — if not for the fact that this is simply a superb book about Mexico — colonialists as well as modernists, historians as well as anthropologists, scholars of the past as well as ethnographers of the present will want this book to spend significant time on their desks and to find a permanent place on their shelves.

Who gets treated at commission on cancer-approved programs and does it make a difference in survival?

114 Background: Commission on Cancer (CoC) approval has promoted improvements in cancer care in the United States. The purpose of this study is to determine if there are differences in who is treated at CoC approved versus non-approved sites and if CoC approval is associated with survival. Methods: We examined 130,655 cases of stages I-IV first primary female invasive breast cancer from the California Cancer Registry diagnosed between 2000-2010. Odds ratios (95% CI) adjusted for stage, age, grade, year of diagnosis, and ER/PR/HER2 were computed to determine if there were differences by race: white, black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander (API) and American Indian (AI); SES (low, intermediate, high) or location (urban versus rural) in the likelihood of treatment at CoC sites. Cox regression was used to assess the risk of cancer specific mortality at CoC approved versus non-approved sites. Results: CoC-approved hospitals were more likely to be urban (89%) than rural (11.2%). Race and SES were associated with being treated at CoC sites. In the lowest SES group, blacks (OR=0.82; 95% CI=0.77, 0.89) and Hispanics (OR=0.90; 95%CI=0.86, 0.95) were less likely than whites to be treated at CoC sites. Similar ORs were seen in the intermediate SES group for blacks and Hispanics. In the highest SES stratum, blacks (OR=0.67; 95%CI=0.62, 0.74), Hispanics (OR=0.76; 95%CI=0.72,0.81), and APIs (OR=0.79; 95%CI=0.75,0.83) were less likely to be treated at CoC sites. Unadjusted survival was better for CoC sites (87% vs 85%). For Stage I, only whites treated at CoC approved sites had decreased risk of mortality (HR=0.86; 95%CI=0.79, 0.95). For Stage 2, whites (HR=0.87; 95%CI=0.82, 0.93) and APIs (HR=0.71; 95%CI=0.59, 0.86) had decreased risk of mortality. Blacks (HR=0.82; 95%CI=0.70,0.99) had slightly decreased risk of mortality. For stages III and IV, no difference in risk of mortality was apparent for any race at CoC-approved sites. Conclusions: Patients treated at CoC approved sites vary by race/ethnicity and SES. While the risk of mortality is reduced for some race/ethnicities in Stages 1 and 2 when treated at CoC-approved sites, for stages III and IV patients, CoC-approval does not make a difference in risk of mortality.

Incontinentia pigmenti: A propósito de un caso.

Incontinentia Pigmenti is a rare X-linked multisystem neuroectodermic disorder with signs and symptoms related mainly to the dermatologic, dental, ocular and central nervous systems, and characterized by death in the majority of male embryos. Affected children do not appear sick, in spite of the skin eruption, the peripheral leucocytosis and marked eosinophilia. Most of the cases are reported in caucasians, although there are description in black children, orientals, north central and south american Indians, and in our mestizos. The name of Incontinentia Pigmenti describes the incontinence of the melanin pigment from the basal layer of the epidemermis into the superficial dermis.