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POLYDACTYLISM AND TOOTH COLOR 



S. SlNHA 



Professor of Botany, Berhampur College, Berhampur, Bengal 



A STRIKING operation of heredity 

 has been found in our thumb. 

 . My uncle has one extra family. 

 He married a normal woman and 

 had eleven daughters and two sons. 

 Only one of the daughters, named 

 Ujyala, has one extra thumb. The 

 Polydactyly was thus transmitted in 

 the second generation. Ujyala was 

 mated with a normal man and had one 

 son and one daughter with normal 

 fingers. Her husband is now dead. 

 My uncle's fourth daughter, named 

 Monda, has nonnal fingers; she was 

 mated with a normal man of a family 

 where did not exist any polydact^'l 

 man or woman in any generation. 

 Monda has given birth to three sons 

 and five daughters, only her second 

 daughter has been born with an extra 

 thumb. This shows that the poly- 

 dactyl character was transmitted even 

 in the third generation despite mating 

 with a member of an untainted family. 

 This polydactyl character remaining 

 latent in Monda appeared in her 

 daughter. 



Davenport writes, as quoted in the 

 Journal of Heredity, July, 1916, p. 

 324, "Polydactyl persons will have at 

 least one-half of their children poly- 

 dactyl. Those quite free from the 



trait, though of the polydactyl straits, 

 will probably have only normal chil- 

 dren." His statement of the mode of 

 heredity was not found true in the 

 records of our family. Out of thirteen 

 children, my uncle has only one daughter 

 with an extra thumb. His normal 

 daughter, Monda, though mated with a 

 normal man, did not have all normal 

 children, as I have already told my 

 readers. 



COLOR OF TEETH 



Another inheritance of character, 

 not so striking as the previous one, has 

 been observed in a Hindoo family of 

 Bengal. "i4's" teeth were brown, i. e., 

 not exactly white. He was mated with 

 a nonnal female; the mating resulted 

 in the production of three sons and 

 four daughters. The first and second 

 sons, the first, second and fourth daugh- 

 ters of the family ha\'e brown teeth. 

 A's first son married a normal woman 

 and had one son and one daughter. 

 The daiighter has brown teeth. A's 

 first daughter was mated with a normal 

 man, which produced three sons and 

 three daughters; only one of the sons 

 got brown teeth. Thus the color char- 

 acter of teeth was transmitted even in 

 third generation both by son and 

 daughter of A. 



Since Brazil has come to realize its 

 possil)ilities in ranching and similar 

 operations, any measure which tends 

 toward the betterment of animal breed- 

 ing is sure to attract attention there. 

 Data collected at a recent live stock 

 census show that there are now six 

 million horses and three million mules in 

 the cfmntry. The Brazilian Congress is 

 now discussing measures for the pro- 

 tection of the horse 1)reeding industrv, 

 and has proposed a national equine stiid 

 to fix a type of Brazilian cavalry horse. 

 There is at present no national type 

 of horse, although excellent specimens 

 96 



Horse Breeding in Brazil 



abound, but by cro.ss breeding it is 

 hoped that a superior type may be 

 fixed. Fifteen stations will be estab- 

 lished if the bill is ])assed, managed by 

 com]Detent loeal authorities, while tech- 

 nical aid would also be secured from 

 abroad. Money ])rizes would be oflfered, 

 and interest stimulated in breeding, not 

 only from superior stallions, but also 

 from sui)erior mares. The bill is being 

 pushed vigorously b\' horse lo\'ers and, 

 if passed, would certainly assist greatly 

 in maintaining breeding standards of 

 the country along lines of true genetic 

 worth. 



