PHYSICAL CHARACTERS IN MAN 127 



has an abnormal child in a family of six. The swelling;- 

 of the legs, which was extreme in certain cases, was 

 usually kept down by w^earing bandages. vSeveral 

 individuals lived to over sevent}' with their legs 

 bandaged, having had the malady for sixty years or 

 more. This condition w^as first described by Milroy in 

 America, where it was traced through six generations, 

 and similar cases of hereditary oedema have been 

 described in France and England. Bulloch (1909) 

 gives nine pedigrees of trophcedema (with permanent 

 swelling of feet and legs), and finds it rather more 

 common in females than in males. In a total of 

 seventy-three affected individuals observed, forty-one 

 were of the former sex and thirty-tw^o of the latter. 

 Bulloch (1909) also describes angioneurotic oedema,* 

 or acute circumscribed oedema, in which there are 

 local swellings of the limbs, trunk, and face, and 

 the mucous membranes may also be involved. The 

 swellings are temporary, but often show remarkable 

 periodicity. There is direct inheritance in a number 

 of instances, or the disease may occur as a family 

 complaint. 



Gossage (1908) cites many instances of inherited 

 abnormalities. Ichthyosis (a dry, rough, and scaly 

 skin), or keratosis (horny growths forming warts or 

 callosities) of the palms or soles is a Mendelian 

 dominant, and has apparentl}^ originated de novo 

 in two cases, one such woman having twelve chil- 

 dren, all, hke herself, abnormal. Multiple hereditary 

 telangiectasis (dilatation of the capillaries and minute 

 arteries) is apparently a dominant, but appears late: 

 fourteen abnormals to twenty-seven normals were 

 recorded. Other cases given are inheritance of 

 (i) tightly curled woolly hair; (2) epidermolysis 



* This is a condition in which there is swelling in patches by 

 the accumulation of blood in the connective tissue owinj^ to a 

 disorder of the vasomotor system affecting the bloodvessels. 



