THE BliADSHAW LECTURE 



on the okl diatheses that I greatly dread the 

 effect of a predominant theory; for if we are 

 impressed by its truth, we are too liable uncon- 

 sciously to accept what tallies with it, and reject 

 that with which it does not agree. How other- 

 wise could such giants in observation have made 

 .such extraordinary and obvious mistakes in the 

 past ? 



A PEDIGREE OF THIRTY YEARS AGO. 



It may be interesting now to show a pedigree 

 that I buried in the ' Guy's Hospital Reports ' just 

 thirty years ago, because its publication was long 

 before the modern schools of heredity came into 

 existence. I will leave it to you to judge whether 

 it does or does not agree with the views of modern 

 investigators. It is a pedigree of supernumerary 

 digits associated with two other deformities, 

 webbing of fingers and toes, and an occasional 

 development of cleft palate. I can vouch that 

 every possible care was taken to make it accurate, 

 .and where there was any doubt as to sex a 

 neutral cross was used throughout the family. 

 The man who furnished it was also of exceptional 

 intelligence and he traced the deformity for us 

 through five generations. It illustrates further 



