330 A Second Bracliydactyloxis Famil;/ 



manner fi'om certain liereditary diseases (such as colour-blindness and 

 haemophilia) which are known to appear in the male children of a 

 woman, who, though showing no sign of these diseases herself, is yet 

 able to transmit them from her affected male parent to her children. 



There are six generations shown in the chart. All the individuals 

 of the first, second and third generations arc dead : of the abnormals of 

 the fourth generation, only two are still living (Nos. 8 and 9); of the 

 fifth and sixth generations, nearly every niembei- (of both fy[)es) is still 

 alive. 



Of the 34 normals living at the present time, I am able to give 

 fairly complete details of 30, and very incomplete details of the re- 

 maining four. 



I am greatly indebted to Dr Geoffrey Williams of Wre.xham, Dr John 

 of Stoke-on-Trent, and Drs Bythell and Boydell of Manchester for the 

 excellent radiographs, without which it would have been impossible to 

 arrive at a correct interpretation of the exact nature of this interesting 

 abnormality. 



"The hands' and feet, as already stated, are abnormal in each 

 affected individual, and the feet are, if anything, more abnormal than 

 the hands, at least as regards their digits. The middle phalanx is 

 practically or virtually — though not actually — absent from each finger 

 and toe. The metacarpal bones are short and otherwise abnormal, but 

 the metatarsus is .scarcely, if at all, affected. Nor is the variation 

 limited to the hands and feet, for all the individuals, with the exception 



of young children are below the average stature, as shown by a 



reference to the table of measurements " (page 33<S). It will be well to 

 stud}' each feature in turn in the following order : hands, feet, stature, 

 etc., as measuriMl and as revealed by photography and radiography. 



Facts revealed ky Photography. 



A. Hands : External aspect. 



Length. " The most conspicuous feature is the shortness, especially 

 of the fingers ; these are only slightly more than half the normal 

 length, sometimes even less than half, whilst the hand looks abnormally 

 broad. The middle finger, measured on the palmar surface from the 



' All quotations such as this, where the source is not mentioned, are from my jiaper on 

 Brachydactyly read before the Royal Society (Edin.) and serve to show features common 

 to the two families. 



