904 H. H. NEWMAN AND J. THOMAS PATTERSON 
Set 121 (Mother abnormal). This is one of two observed cases 
of the direct inheritance of an atypical condition from the mother. 
In this case the mother had a right marginal fusion of the last two 
bands, involving 4 scutes. 
Foetus I is normal. 
Foetus 11 shows a ‘jog’ in the ninth band similar to that shown 
in fig. 23 and in set 101. There are 33 scutes on each side of the 
break and hence the latter is median. 
Foetus 111 is normal. 
Foetus Iv shows a ‘jog’ in the ninth band just like that in foetus 
11 except that there are 33 scutes on the right and 35 on the left. 
The ‘abnormality’ in the mother is entirely different in char- 
acter from that shown by the two foetuses, but in that it is uni- 
lateral and involves the ninth band in both mother and foetuses, 
there would seem to be ground for believing that there is some 
genetic connection between the peculiarities seen in the two 
generations. It is quite possible that the parental and filial 
conditions may have no hereditary connection, but there must 
nevertheless be some predetermining mechanism controlling the 
occurrence of the same peculiarity in two of the members of a set. 
It should be noted that the two diagonally placed foetuses 
seem to be paired with respect to the band irregularity, and that 
the same individuals were noted as paired on the basis of scute 
counts. This condition strengthens the hypothesis that occasion- 
ally there may occur such a shifting of the blastomeres as to bring 
about a false pairing in the arrangement of the quadruplets with- 
out interfering with their inherited potentialities. For a more 
detailed discussion of this situation reference is made to one of 
our former papers on this subject.! 
Set 123. Mother shows a deep crease in the scapular shield, 
between the ninth and tenth scapular rows (counting from the 
posterior margin of the shield). This crease is apparently due to 
the suppression of part of a row of scutes. 
All four foetuses show the same peculiar crease in precisely the 
same region. The photograph (fig. 24) will serve to emphasize 
1 Newman and Patterson, 1910. This Journal, vol. 21, no. 3, p. 401. 
