AS TO THE HEBEDITT OF ACQUIRED CONDITIONS. 478 



flammatory theory or that of mal-uutrition be true, the condition 

 would be somatogenic in its nature. Those cases where the cleft 

 is due to the presence of a tumour are undoubtedly so, but they 

 are, I believe, never hereditary. On the other hand, cases due to 

 an original lack of formative material would be somatogenic. It 

 is possible that these aud some other defects may be due to a 

 hitherto little recognized cause, that is a failure of nerve-action 

 during intra-uterine lif e. I purpose devoting a section at a later 

 part of this paper to the consideration of this hypothesis. For 

 the present, however, the subject of cleft-palate must be left in a 

 highly undecided state, 



Edentulism. — Partial absence of teeth, accompanied or unac- 

 companied by peculiarities of the hair, is an hereditary condition 

 at times. Cases have been given by Darwin and others, and my 

 friend Mr. Humphreys was good enough to supply me with notes 

 of some observed by himself, which I published in my paper on 

 " Congenital Malformations and Heredity." One very curious 

 case communicated to me by Dr. Packenheim, of Eisenach, and 

 since ptiblished in his paper already quoted, I shall give at 

 length, because of its bearing upon the question of mal-nutrition 

 as a cause of defects, which has yet to be dealt with. In the 

 case I allude to there is on the father's side polydactylism both 

 of the hands and feet, on the mother's anomalous dentition. The 

 mother's genealogy, and the children born of her union with the 

 poly dactyl ous Heinzler, stands as follows : — 



Katharina X 



Xaver Marie (M.) Celestine Kuaigunde Theresa (M.) Appolonia Mathilde 



- (M.) (M.) II 



(unm.) X I I X (children (children (unm.) Heinzler 



X (children Alfons normal). normal). (polj'dactylous). 



normal) X | 



I \ \ \ \ i 



Friedrich Frieda Adolf Mathilde Elsa August 



XX X (?) 



Katharina, the grandmother, had only two upper pointed 

 teeth in place of the incisors, and two molars. Her children 

 were situated, as regards their teeth, as follows: — Xaver, un- 

 married, is somewhat similar to his mother, so is Marie, who has 

 normal children, Celestine is siaiilarly affected, and so is her 

 son Alfons, who possesses only four teeth including one first 



