Davenport and Weeks: Inheritance of Epii^epsy 



21 



be rare that a person of mentally strong strain, even if mated to a 

 "tainted" person, should have an epileptic child. The normal 

 parent of an epileptic usually has some defective germ cells. 



TABLE C. 

 Showing the Distribution of the Tainted Relatives of a Normal 

 Parent of Epileptics into the Various Classes of Mental Condition. 



Table VII shows the proportions of the various mental condi- 

 tions occurring among the offspring of two normal parents in 

 those families that have epileptic children. This table is of great 

 theoretical interest. If our hypothesis that ordinary epilepsy is 

 due to the absence of a character is correct then if the normal 

 parents produced all germ cells with the character all offspring 

 should have the character. The fact that some offspring are 

 defective is explained on Mendelian grounds on the assumption 

 that both parents though somatically normal, have one half their 

 germ cells defective. What evidence is there of the application 

 of Mendelian expectation to this case? There are 24 matings 



