356 



The Journal of Heredity 



various stages of their progress, and 

 those of some others have had to be 

 definitely abandoned. 



Thus far we have completed the 

 investigations, in accordance with the 

 plan here outlined, of ten famihes, 

 including a total of over 400 individuals. 



The total number of direct offspring 

 of the insane represented in this material 

 is sixty-nine, and of these forty-one 

 lived to an adult age. They are the 

 olTsjjring of five patients with dementia 

 praecox, three patients with psychoses 

 not definitely diagnosed but classified 

 as allied to dementia praecox, one 

 patient with paranoic condition, and 

 one patient with epileptic dementia. 



We hope, when our work is finished, 

 to publish a full description of our 

 material; for the present, we would 

 submit the following general account of 

 our findings : 



In four out of the ten families that 

 have been investigated all the offspring 

 who survived to an adult age, sixteen 

 in total number, were entirely normal 

 sf) far as it was possible for us to judge. 

 This part of our material, then, seems 

 to supjxjrt the view, already expressed 

 in a previous study,^ that the forms of 

 insanity here dealt with behave in 

 heredity as Mendelian recessives in 

 respect of faiHng to appear in the first 

 filial generation of hybrids. 



In four other families some or all of 

 the offspring showed slight or transient 

 ueuropathic symptoms interfering but 



little, if at all, with living at large and 

 pursuit of ordinan,' occupations. This 

 suggests, as a possible explanation, 

 imperfection of dominance, for which 

 some evidence in material of neuro- 

 pathic inheritance has also been ad- 

 duced^. The total number of offspring 

 in these four families, which sur\-i\'ed 

 to an adult age, was seventeen; and 

 of these eleven showed slight neuro- 

 pathic symptoms, as mentioned above, 

 the remaining six being entirely free 

 from even such symptoms. 



Of the offspring in the remaining 

 two families, of whom nine sur\'ived 

 to an adult age, two were insane and 

 committed to institutions; one was 

 insane a short time and committed 

 suicide — the physician who was called 

 in had suggested that she be sent to an 

 institution; two showed slight neuro- 

 pathic symptoms; and the remaining 

 four seemed entirely normal. 



The facts concerning the consorts of 

 the patients and the consorts' parents, 

 sibs. and other relatives, as we have 

 them on record, contain much that 

 would help to explain the contrasts 

 presented by the fraternities of the ten 

 families; we hope that some parts of 

 the material may serve also as basis for 

 the formulation of definitions of inherit- 

 able units in human mental constitution, 

 for we do not believe that traits that 

 can be tolerably well defined without 

 reference to facts of their hereditary 

 transmission are necessarily, or even 

 probably, true biological entities. 



* Rosanoff and Orr. /l Sludy of Heredity in Insanity in the Light of the Mendelian Theory. 

 Amcr. Journ of Ins., Vol. 68, Oct. 1911; also Bulletin N6. .S, Eugenics Record Office, Cold Spring 



^Rosanoff. Dissimilar Heredity in Mental Disease. Amer. Journal of Insanity, Vol. 70, 

 July. 1913. -^ 



Bud Selection in Apples 



At the Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station, bud selection is the subject of 

 research m apples. Three crops ha\'e now been har\-estcd from trees, part of 

 which were grown from .scions selected from high ])r()ducing i)arenls and part from 

 parents of low producing habits. The difTerence in vield has not been large enough 

 to be significant. "There was practically as much variation in \'ield of fruit and in 

 size and color of fruit between trees from the same parent as'there was between 

 trees of different parentage." 



