AS TO THE HEEEDITY OF ACQUIRED CONDITIONS. 479 



Dr. Oscar Israel has published a paper * on the condition, in 

 which he describes two similar cases in which there is no muti- 

 lation in the parents. Moreover, he points out that the cleft 

 always has its site in the position of a fissure of normal occurrence 

 in the development of the ear, which fissure has been called by His 

 " Sulcus inter tragicus." The malformation, therefore, falls into 

 line with the other congenital clefts as an arrest of development. 

 JSranchial Fistula. — A failure in the closing of the branchial 

 clefts producing the condition known as branchial fistula is at 

 times hereditary. In fact the influence of this factor appears to 

 be considerable, since Heusinger t was able to trace its action in 

 seventeen out of forty-six individuals. The following table 

 given by Ahlfeld from Ascherson % gives a good example of an 



affected family':— 



F.x 



F. X M.n. F.x F.n. 



F.x F.n. M.X F.x F.X F.x M.n. 



The condition seems to be undoubtedly blastogenie, though 

 whether due to lack of material or to nervous causes is not clear. 



Hypospadias. — This malformation is sometimes hereditary. 

 Lucas § gives a case in which grandfather and father both were 

 affected; whilst the son had the same defect combined with 

 atresia ani and rectum opening into the urethra. In another case, 

 alluded to by both Darwin and Lucas, and originally described 

 by Meckel ||, a female in whose family hypospadias was present, 

 gave birth to two sons, both affected with the same deformity. 



This exhausts the list, so far as I am aware, of hereditary mal- 

 formations of the second sub-division. The last division, that of 

 abnormalities not due to faults of formative material, which must 

 next be dealt with, will not require any very lengthy consideration. 



* "Angeb. Spalten d. Ohrlappchens," Yirch. Arch. Bd. 119. S. 241. [Since 

 this paper was written, several communications have appeared on the subject, 

 the titles of which are here given for the sake of completeness : — Ornstein, Arch, 

 f. Anthrop. t. xviii. f. 4 ; v. Swiecieki and His, Arch. f. Anat. u. Entw., Jahrg. 

 1890, Hft. 5 & 6; cf. also Laloy, "Malforra. Hered. du Pavilion de I'Oreille," 

 L'Anthropologie, i. p. 5.— Note, Dec. 30, 1890.] 



t Virch. Arch. Bd. 29. S. 358. 



I De iistulis colli cougenitis. Diss, pro venia legendi (Berlin, 1832). 

 § (From Dr. Ritter von Eottembourg,) vol. i. p. 324. 



II Hdb. d. path. Anat. vol. i. p. 20. 



