MERISTIC PHENOMENA 47 



evidence shows, as Spillman has lately pointed out," that the 

 condition behaves as a dominant. The essential feature of 

 this abnormality is that the digits III and IV are partially 

 united. The union is greatest peripherally. Sometimes the 



I 



G 



Fig. 3. I, II, III, various degrees of syndactyly affecting the medius and 

 annularis in the hand; IV, syndactyly affecting the index and medius in the foot 

 (After Annandale.) 



third phalanges only are joined to form one bone, but the second 

 and even the first phalanges may also be compounded together. 

 Here the variation is obviously meristic and consists in a failure 

 "Spillman, W. J. t Amer, Breeders Mag., ioio, I, p. 178. 



