176 



The Journal of Heredity 



sporadic mutations. But what more is 

 expected of them? 



On page 184 we note that first gen- 

 eration hybrids are used extensively. 

 Although the extensive use of such 

 hybrids is greatly to be desired the 

 above statement must be taken as a 

 prediction rather than a fact. 



These statements illustrate the futil- 

 ity of generalizations about this 

 species and whenever found they 

 should be the subjects of reservations 

 by the reader. 



It is to be regretted also that the 

 distinctive name hrachytic has been ap- 

 plied to an entirely different and un- 

 related form of dwarfing from that 

 originally published under this desig- 

 nation. 



It seems worthy of note that the 

 abortion of parts ["which seems a 

 characteristic of theories demanding it 

 for consistency"] is now recognized as 



a common phenomenon in the nonnal 

 development of the sex organs. 



In the discussion of maize-teosinte 

 hybrids the author discounts the re- 

 sults obtained thus far and urges post- 

 ponement of further investigations 

 along this line. The efforts of mor- 

 phologists in the past, however, have 

 not been such as to encourage geneti- 

 cists to postpone further analysis of 

 maize-teosinte hybrids with the hope 

 that a "sound working basis of mor- 

 phology" will be available. 



Had the volume been limited more 

 definitely to morphology, a field for 

 which the author seems eminently 

 fitted, it could have been recommended 

 highly, having no more than the usual 

 errors of observation and interpreta- 

 tion, but as constituted at present it 

 falls seriously short of presenting the 

 story of the maize-plant. 



J. H. Kempton. 



The Inheritance of Squinting 



That squinting is definitely inher- 

 ited, is the conclusion of Arthur Czel- 

 litzer, a Berlin oculist, who publishes 

 a study of his cases in the Archiv f. 

 Rassen- unci Gesellschafts-Biologic 

 (XIV, 4). More than 800 brothers 

 and sisters of cross-eyed children have 

 been examined, and data sought re- 

 garding their parents and other an- 

 cestors. 



W^hile the frequency of squinting in 



the general population is reported to 

 be only one or two per cent, he found 

 that 15.4 per cent of the brothers and 

 sisters of cross-eyed patients were also 

 affected. The author's pedigree charts 

 lead him to the conclusion that cross- 

 eyes depend on two distinct recessive 

 factors. There seems to be some 

 genetic difference between convergent 

 and divergent strabismus, however. 



P. P. 



A Eugenics Advisory Bureau 



A free public eugenic clinic is now 

 open two afternoons a week in the 

 Anthropological Institute of the Uni- 

 versity of Munich, Bavaria. An an- 

 thropologist and a i)hysician are in 

 attendance, to help inquirers to study 

 their family histories intelligently and 

 learn their own genetic constitutions, 

 so far as is possible. The examina- 

 tion results in the preparation of a 



detailed report, of which one copy is 

 given to the applicant and the other 

 (identified only by a serial number) 

 is kept by the Institute for the use of 

 research workers. A charge is made 

 for special services such as photo- 

 gra])hs and X-ray examinations. The 

 bureau is known as the Beratungstelle 

 fur biologische Familienforschung. 



