AS TO THE HEREDITY OF ACQUIEED CONDITIONS. 465 



Absence of Bones or Parts of Bodies. — Malformatious of this 

 kind are not very uncommon. In the followiug, amongst other 

 cases, the condition has been hereditary : — (1) Prof. Sir Wra. 

 Turner has described * a case of shortening of the ring-finger, 

 which was 1*2 in. shorter than the middle, and only 0'5 in. louger 

 than the little finger. This condition was not due to abseuce of 

 any of the bones, but to imperfect growth of the metacarpal bone. 

 In the family was also present widening of the great toe and 

 thumb — sometimes with short riug-finger, sometimes without. 

 The malformation ran through six, or possibly seven, generations. 

 (2) In another family t shortening, due to absence of phalanges, 

 in a variable number of digits ran through three, or possibly four, 

 generations. (3) Absence of patellae through two J and three § 

 generations has been recorded. (4) Imperfection of one or other 

 end of one or both clavicles has existed through three generations 

 in a family ||. There can be little doubt that these malformations 

 are blastogenic, and due to deficiency of formative material. 



Peromelia and Perodactyly. — Absence of parts or of an entire 

 limb or digits. This group opens up the whole question of 

 intra-uterine amputations, which requires some little consideration. 

 First described by Montgomery %, it has been discussed by a 

 number of later writers, some of whose opinions must here be 

 dealt with. In Montgomery's first case the foot which had been 

 amputated was found in the membranes, and was apparently two 

 months younger than the child to whom it belonged. In another 

 case the constriction had severed everything but skin and bone. 

 According to his view inflammatory lymph was thrown out, 

 which constricted the growing part and effected the amputation. 

 Dr. Macau ** has described a case of amputation of the arm below 

 the insertion of the biceps, in which the cicatrix was quite healed. 

 The amputated part was not found, though searched for. In 30 

 years only one case of intra-uterine amputation had been recorded 

 in the practice of the Eotunda Hospital, Dublin. In the discussion 

 which followed upon the paper in which this case was described, 

 Dr. Kidd said that in something less than 30 years he had seen 



* Journ. Anat. & Phys. vol. xviii. p. 463. t Tilley. 



I Med. Notes and Eeflectious, p. 33. 



§ Med. Gaz. 1833, p. 519. || Warreu Museum Catalogue, no. 217. 



^ In an Essay " On the Spontaneous Amputation of the Foetal Limbs in 

 Utero," at the end of his " Signs and Symptoms of Pregnancy." 



** Dubl. Jovirn. Med. Sci. vol. lix. p. 55. 

 LIFN. JOTJBN. — ZOOLOGT, VOL. XXIII. 88 



