AS TO THE HEKEDITT OF ACQUIRED COIfDITIOXS. 491 



ments of "Waltlier* and Langenbeck t, both of whom maintain 

 that the severer forms of cleft-palate have become more common 

 within their own recollection. To draw more precise conclusions 

 from considerations such as the above," he proceeds, " would be 

 beyond the scope of the present article, but it may not perhaps 

 be out of place to suggest that the diiference between the con- 

 ditions of civilized and uncivilized life is quite as much a matter 

 of increased nervous strain as of changed physical environment ; 

 that the over-taxed nervous system, which in the parent manifested 

 itself only by functional instability and subjective remonstrance, 

 may, in the child, issue in objective defect and an actual refusal 

 to complete its alloted task." 



(2) Dr. Laugdon Down has drawn attention to the occurrence 

 of palatine abnormalities in congenital idiots. Out of two hun- 

 dred cases observed eighty-two "possessed palates inordinately 

 arched, and with this increased arching were noticed various abnor- 

 malities. In seven the palate-bones did not meet, leaving a sulcus 

 between them, the mucous membrane being, however, continuous. 

 There was no instance of the ordinary cleft-palate, and I may 

 remark that in an examination of nearly six hundred idiots, I have 

 failed in meeting with an example of that deformity. In several 

 the hard palate extended but a short distance posteriorly from 

 defect of the palatal process of the superior maxillary bone and 

 entire absence of the palatal bone, and in all these cases the velum 

 palati was unusually flaccid. In the majority of cases there was 

 marked narrowness of the palate "J. 



(3) In describing cases of hereditary ataxia, or Friedreich's 

 disease, my colleague Dr. Suckling says that the association of 

 the disease with other deformities is interesting, " In the one 

 family, one son was born with deformity of the foot, and a daugh- 

 ter with only one upper limb. In the other family two cousins 

 were born bald. There is no doubt that the deficiency in the 

 nervous tracts is a congenital one, and due to a fault in develop- 

 ment " §. 



(4) Beigel ||, in a paper on albinism and nigrism, gives it as 

 his opinion that these conditions are due to nervous affections. 



* Gi'aefe u. Walther's Journal, Bd. xxi. S. 175. 



t Neue Bibliothek fiir die Obirurgie, Bd. iv. Hft. 3, S. 492. 



J Mental Affections of Cliildhood and Youth, p. 159. 



§ Kepr. from Illustrated Med. News, 1890. 



11 Virch. Arch, xliii. 529. 



