Behavior synthesis through pigment gene pleiotropy : reprints and essays / Clyde E. Keeler.

  • Keeler, Clyde E. (Clyde Edgar), 1900-1994.
Date:
1968
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Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Behavior synthesis through pigment gene pleiotropy : reprints and essays / Clyde E. Keeler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Dermatologia Tropica January-JMarch 1934 coat color mutations in rats,^ and be¬ cause Moon-Child voices appeared to be soft and raised in pitch in adult males, we tested the six Moon-Child males and their controls for quality of voice by striking notes on the piano and having the subjects imitate them. Speaking and singing were recorded on tape and again compared. The tone quality of the Moon-Child voice, both vocal and speaking, ap¬ pears somewhat lighter and of a higher pitch than that of the brown skins. The vocal range of the albinos was greater than that of the brown skins, but this may be due to the fact the albinos tend to sing more. It was observed that results obtained from the albinos were better than those from the brown skins. It might be assumed that music is an area that would give ego support to the albino in a ñeld of accomplishment that might accord him some status and recogni¬ tion within his culture, since he is ob¬ viously different from the brown majority and physically weaker. Fig. 3—Group of Cuna children with one moon child (photograph courtesy of Dr. Ed¬ ward Cleve, Division of Tropical Medicine, Tulane University of Louisiana School of Medicine). Laboratory Tests Three pairs of Indians, albino and con¬ trol, had the following routine labora¬ tory tests performed : complete blood count, sedimentation rate, sickle cell prep., thymol turbidity, cephalin floc- culation, total cholesterol, potassium, sodium, uric H + , glucose, urea nitro¬ gen, protein-bound iodine, urinalysis, and stool examination for ova and parasites. The others refused to coop¬ erate in these tests, but such refusal will be obviated in the future. Nothing noteworthy was discovered save that p;otein-bound iodines were significantly higher in the albinos than in the brown-skinned siib]ect^. Two albinos were in the range of thyro¬ toxicosis. This is just the opposite of what would have been expected. How¬ ever, these results are in line with the high basal metabolism figures for the black mutation in rats.^'' Although these tests reveal nothing, it is known that Moon-Children, especially fe¬ males, mature late.^'' Special laboratory tests performed in all six albinos and their controls in¬ cluded hemoglobin, serum electropho e- sis, urinary acid secretion, Mosenthal's urinary concentration as well as blood typing for the presence of blood group antigens : A, B, 0, D, E, C, c, e, Cu% F, M, N, S, K, G, Le^, be', Fa and Di. All Indians were 0 + . No significant differ¬ ences were noted between albinos and brown-skinned subjects with respect to other antigens. One of the brown con¬ trols was Diego positive, a fact of great importance to anthropologists. Heart Out of a sample of 12 Indians, to find, as we did, that five have slight or pronounced cardiac hypertrophy is in¬ deed amazing. In the event that this incidence holds for other sam.ples, the tribe should be studied for hereditary heart defects, which probably exist. The QRS ventricular pattern of the SI S2 S3 type is more frequent than the average (in four of five cases) among controls. It was observed but once among albinos. In the albinos there is a tendency to left axis deviation ; the tendency in normal controls is to right axis deviation. In the albinos the tendency is for the horizontal position to predominate ; in the controls the vertical electrical position predom¬ inates. There is no significant change in the rhythm or in the 1-A and 1-lV conduction from both groups. It will be interesting to note, as fur¬ ther data are collected, whether these are merely chance associations or whether they represent pleiotropic tendencies of the albino gene, in con¬ trast to those of its normal allei. 3142