AS TO THE HEEBPITT OF ACQUIRED CONDITIOlSrS. i61 



choses, par le progres, depuis que, les voies de communications 

 etant devenues meilleures, les relations a I'exterieur plus fre- 

 quentes, les alliances se contractaient dans des conditions plus 

 favorables ; depuis, en un mot, que le croisement des races avait 

 lieu. En 1847 j'ai eu occasion de voir un chef d'atelier, origi- 

 naire de cet localite, fixe et marie a Lyon. II etaifc porteur du 

 vice de conformation signale ; il etait pere de quatre enfants, 

 qui n'avaient point le stigmate paternale. A I'heure qu'il est, 

 d'apres les renseignements circonstancies pris aupres de medecins 

 de la localite, cette anomalie pathologique a presque complete- 

 ment disparu.' " 



To sum up, then, the subject of polydactyly, it may at least be 

 said that there is no proof that any of the bereditary cases are 

 somatogenic. I should go further myself, and say that there is 

 every reason to believe that they are blastogeuie. 



Supratrochlear Process. — Stratbers * has recorded a case in 

 wbicb this curious process or hook was hereditary. It is atavistic 

 and undoubtedly blastogenic in its nature. 



I*olpjiastia.-^ Accessory breasts may exist on the thigh, 

 groin, vulva, back, or otber parts of the body, the following 

 table giving Leichtenstern's t figures from an examination of 105 

 cases : — 



The accessory gland was on the anterior surface of the thorax in 96. 

 ,, ,, in the axilla ,, „ 5. 



„ „ on tbe back „ „ 2. 



„ „ on the acromion „ „ 1. 



„ „ on tbe thigh „ „ 1. 



The condition may be hereditary, as in the case narrated by 

 EobertJ of a woman who had a third breast on the exterior of 

 the left thigh placed 4 inches below the great trochanter, with 

 which she had suckled several children ; her mother had a third 

 tboracic breast. Woodman § records a case where a woman and 

 her cbild were both possessed of three thoracic mammae. As 

 to the cause of the malformation, one would not think that 

 there need be much difference of opinion. Ahlfeld ||, however, 



* Lancet, Feb. 15, 1873. 



t Virchow's Archiv, Ed. 73, S. 222. 



\ Journal de Physiologic, tome vii. no. 2. 



§ Trans. Obst. Soc. vol. ix. p. 50. 



II ' Die Missbild. d. Menschen ' (Leipzig, 1880), S. 110. 



