VIRILE SENTIMENT 83 



recessive character would breed true has been fulfilled 

 in fact. With regard to the proportions in which 

 the two kinds of offspring derived from parents, one 

 of which manifests the tuft {=DR) and the other 

 does not {=RR), the actual proportion is nearly 

 identical with that required by expectation. There 

 are thirty-two individuals in the offspring, and the 

 expectation is sixteen of each type. There are, 

 actually, seventeen with the tuft of hair and fifteen 

 without. 



I have taken these two cases from Dr. Gossage's 

 paper because they are of a nature which the layman 

 can understand. They do not deal with patho- 

 logical characters, but rather with what we may term 

 peculiarities. But all the rest of the cases with 

 which he deals are of a pathological nature. The 

 phenomena of segregation and gametic purity are 

 clearly manifested, but, as already stated, there are 

 a few doubtful exceptions. Those who desire to 

 study these cases will find them described in the 

 Quarterly Journal of Medicine, Vol. 1, No. 3. 



I would like now to ask you to consider two 

 extremely important and interesting cases. The 

 first one has reference to an abnormal condition of 

 the fingers and toes. The peculiarities connected 

 with them are correlated with others, but these we 

 need not consider. The case has been worked out, 

 with very great care and labour, by Dr. Drinkwater. 

 The peculiarity is technically called " Brachy- 

 dactyly " ; more popularly we may speak of it as 

 " short-fingerness " or " thumb -fingerness." The 



