Congenital nystagmus among the red-skins of the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

This video is a compilation of 8mm films taken by Professor W. I. McDonald in 1975 while visiting Dr. R. W. Hornabrook while he was Director of the Institute of Human Biopsy in Papua New Guinea. Professor McDonald was accompanied by Roger L. Carroll from Dallas, Texas and together the three men carried out an investigation of congenital nystagmus among the red-skins of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea. The films show the movements of the eyes of these individuals and illustrate the persistent spontaneous side to side movement characteristic of nystagmus of the congenital type. Also of note; the 'red-skins' are albinos and their vision is normal . The third person in the study, a young woman, is wearing feathers and decorative head/neckwear characteristic of a rite of puberty in the region.