79 



^'THE CATLIN MARK 



The Inheritance of an Unusual Opening in the Parietal Bones 

 William M. Goldsmith, Ph.D. 



Department of Biology, Southwestern College, Winfield, Kansas 



"EYES" IN THE BACK OF HIS HEAD 



This is not, as it appears, an attenipt on the 

 part of nature to meet the proverbial sma 

 boy's demand for "eyes in the back of his head. 

 The holes serve no such useful purpose, but show 

 the inheritance of an entirely useless or even 

 injurious character. (Fig. 11.) 



THE accompanying figures are in- 

 tended to present certain facts 

 regarding the inheritance of a very 

 unusual defect, namely, an openmg in 

 the parietal bones. The radiographs 

 show the position of the opening. 1 he 

 exact location is more clearly shown by 

 the picture of the skull. (Fig. 11.) 



In the particular individual, whose 

 radiograph is shown in C, Fig- 12, 

 the opening in the left parietal is 

 larger and more irregular in contour 

 than the right. It will be noted 

 in D that the father of C has a similar 

 skull'defect. Furthermore, as the fam- 

 ily chart shows, Mr. Catlin, 111,6 has 

 two brothers and one sister similarly at- 



TWO VIEWS OF THE "CATLIN 

 MARK" 



Above (C), is shown an X-ray 

 photograph of the defect in the skull of 

 one of the daughters of the man shown 

 below (D). The presence of this detect 

 in the skull has no influences on mental- 

 ity and causes only slight inconven- 

 ience, although a baby with a large 

 "Catlin Mark" is more liable to injury 

 at birth. (Fig. 12.) 

 fected. The "mark" was traced up the 

 male line to the grandfather of the man 

 whose photograph is shown m Hg. 1^ 

 where the history was lost. (See h ig. l ^- ) 

 The four branches of the family 

 which produced offspring are indicated 

 on the family chart. The affected 



69 



