22 A NEW TYPE OF BRACHYPHALANGY IN MAN. 



unusually elaborate and accurate and the quoted statement concerning 

 the hands of his mother and her 10 children can safely be regarded as 

 reliable. 



A control of the correctness of his statement that "every second 

 child" had the malformation is furnished by our investigation, which 

 has shown that the following children: 1.1 9, 1.3 9,1. To", and 1.9cf 

 were brachyphalangous. We have succeeded in determining this 

 either through direct information concerning the individuals them- 

 selves or through the occurrence of affected individuals in their off spring. 



Regarding No. 1.5 cf, who married twice and left 5 children, we have 

 not yet had the opportunity of carrying out the examination of his 

 descendants; but since all the results we have so far obtained are 

 strongly in support of the correctness of the quoted statement, it is 

 exceedingly probable that it holds for this brother of the author as well. 



The statement that the malformed index fingers had "only one 

 joint" shows that No. 1 9 M. K. H. must have had the B!-type of 

 the brachyphalangous condition. Whether the brachyphalangy was 

 transferred to this individual from her parents or whether we here have 

 the first occurrence of the character has not been determined No re- 

 marks are found in the family book concerning the hands of her parents. 

 She had three brothers and one sister, all of whom married, and their 

 descendants are living in different parts of Norway. But we have 

 not had time to find out whether or not members of these families show 

 brachyphalangy. 



The husband of 1, L. 0., who was from quite another part of Nor- 

 way, was unrelated to her and may be regarded as normal. Their 

 children represent the members of Generation II, now to be described. 



II GENERATION. 



From this generation we have been able to provide our first photo- 

 graph demonstrating the characteristic brachyphalangy of the indices 

 (fig. 3). The photograph is owned by a member of the IV generation 

 and he knows with certainty that it represents one of his grand-uncles, 

 a son of the parents just spoken of, though he can no longer remember 

 which of them. Moreover, the clothing worn by the photographed 

 man proves beyond doubt that he belonged to this and not to the fol- 

 lowing generation. 



The photograph gives a good idea of the abnormality (fig. 3). Both 

 indices are strikingly shortened and look as if they had only one joint. 

 The terminal phalanges and their nails seem to be normal, but on both 

 hands they are bent in a radial direction in relation to the axis of the 

 basal phalanx. We have in later generations good examples of a 

 similar type. Radiographs show in these cases that the second phalanx 

 is present, but only as a bone of the size of a pea, while phalanges 1 and 

 3 are normal. The bent condition of the finger is caused by the dis- 



