46 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



which are nearly an inch and a half shorter than those 

 of the normal members of this family ; in fact, the 

 fingers are only a trifle more than half the normal 

 length (Plate 3.) 



This shortening of the fingers handicaps these 

 people very considerably and prevents them following 

 any trade or profession requiring fingers of the normal 

 length. None of them seems able to play any 

 musical instrument. They are all engaged in occu- 

 pations where there is no call for great manual 

 dexterity. 



Statuee. 



Another peculiarity of these people is their short 

 stature. The men are, on an average, 8} inches 

 shorter than their male normal relatives (the tallest 

 being only 5 feet 3 J inches), and the women are 4| 

 inches less than the. normal women. 



This shortness of stature is not present in the 

 children ; indeed, at two years of age they are actually 

 I inch taller than the long-fingered children. In fact, 

 it is not until after the fourteenth year that retarda- 

 tion of growth occurs. This is true of both sexes. 

 Farabee noted that the American family are like the 

 English as regards the short stature of the adults. 



Several comparative measurements are shown in 

 Fig. 4. 



The conspicuous peculiarities of these people are 

 the shortness of the hands and toes, and the shortness 

 of stature ; but the abnormals differ in several other 

 respects from their normal relatives. 



I shall only refer to a few of these differences. 



