STUDIES IN HUMAN HEREDITY 



Many Investigations Under Way in United States, Some of Them on a Very Large 



Scale — What the Investigators Are Doing — Help Wanted from 



Members of This Association. 



Dr. Frederick Adams Woods Dr. Adolf Meyer 



Charles B. Davenport 

 Eugenics Research Committee of the American Genetic Association. 



few 

 the 

 this 



inheritance of twinning, left-handed- 

 ness, feeblemindedness, congenital deaf- 

 ness, longevity, or a dozen other easily 

 recognized traits, will communicate the 

 fact to some worker in that field, it will 

 immediately bring to light many new 

 and valuable pedigrees which under 

 present conditions are likely to remain 

 buried for a long time. 



The following report does not, for the 

 most part, take into account investiga- 

 tions that have been made at some 

 time in the past, and completed or 

 given up before completion. It also 

 omits many individuals who have con- 

 ducted research work in the past, but 

 are believed not to be actively engaged 

 in such work at present. Workers are 

 mentioned mainly in alphabetical order. 



THE HYDE GENEALOGY. 



Alexander Graham Bell, whose in- 

 vestigation of the inheritance of con- 

 genital deafness was the first serious 

 study in cacogenics made in America, 

 has just completed an exhaustive analy- 

 sis of data contained in published 

 genealogies of the Hyde family, with a 

 view to discovering the degree of in- 

 heritance of longevity. His material 

 embraces nearly 3,000 individuals, and 

 the results leave no doubt that long life 

 is largely dependent on heredity. When 

 published, this investigation will also 

 be an important contribution to the 

 question of the results of early marriage, 

 since Dr. Bell's statistics appear to show^ 



1 C. L. Redfield's investigation seems to throw additional light on this point. From a study of 

 1109 cases he reports that the infant mortality is greatest among the children of old parents, 

 but that if only children who reach maturity are c-ounted, the longevity is proportional to the 

 age of parents, the longest-lived children being those born when their parents were far past 

 youth. "Taking the tables for longevity and infant mortality together, it will be seen that the 

 children of young parents are more likely to survive to maturity than the children of old parents, 

 but of those' which do survive, the children of old parents live longer than those of young parents." 

 (Dynamic Evolution, 1914, p. 185). 



547 



THE amount of research in human 

 genetics and eugenics, now be- 

 ing carried on in the United 

 States, is probably realized by 

 persons. In the following report, 

 Eugenics Research Committee of 

 Association has brought together 

 data about some of these lines of inves- 

 tigation. The report does not include 

 all such lines, or even all the important 

 ones. It is probable that many investi- 

 gators unknown to this committee are 

 pursuing researches in different parts of 

 the country; the committee hopes they 

 will send to the Journal of Heredity 

 brief statements of their work, in order 

 that all those interested may know just 

 what is being done, and what remains 

 to be undertaken. 



The object of the committee in pre- 

 senting this report is twofold. In the 

 first place, it is felt to be a matter of 

 interest to genetists, both here and 

 abroad, to know just what is being at- 

 tempted in this branch of the science in 

 the United States. In the second place, 

 it is hoped that members of this associa- 

 tion who know where valuable material 

 may be found bearing on human 

 heredity, but can not make use of it 

 themselves and do not know to whom 

 they may refer it, will be able with the 

 help of this report to communicate 

 with some one engaged on a similar line 

 of research, letting him know where new 

 material of interest to him can be ob- 

 tained. If all who know of family 

 histories including striking cases of the 



