76 INHERITANCE OF DIGITAL MALFORMATIONS IN MAN. 



is less than two-thirds the number of abnormal females. Of 

 the thirty-six descendants affected, twenty-two are females 

 and but fourteen are males, or sixty-one and thirty-nine per cents 

 respectively. Forty-five percent of all males and fifty-eight 

 percent of all females are abnormal. It thus appears that the 

 males are more prolific than the females ; that a higher percent 

 of the offspring of males than of females are abnormal ; and the 

 female offspring of both male and female parents are more often 

 abnormal. The numbers here compared are too small to base 

 conclusions upon, yet the sexual differences are so marked that 

 they must be of some significance. 



Table v gives the genealogy of the abnormals only — the 

 number and sex of normal and abnormal offspring in each gen- 

 eration. It shows that exogamy has been the custom in all 

 these generations. Table vi gives all the known normals and 

 abnormals and proves the last part of the tradition, — that no 

 normal descendant of an abnormal parent has had abnormal 

 offspring. We have here three complete lines of descent from 

 the second generation to the fifth and all descendants are known 

 in two of these lines. In all, twenty-one normals have married 

 other normals outside the family and have had born to them 

 seventy children, not one of whom is abnormal. According 

 to former theories it should be expected that the character 

 would reappear somewhere in these lines; but according to 

 MendePs lavr, even if the character were recessive, w^e should 

 not expect it to reappear at all, since these families practised 

 exogamy. Luckily, for the testing of recession, two cousins 

 in the third generation married and had only normal offspring. 

 This is shown in the table by uniting two of the lines of descent 

 to form a new one. If the character were recessive it should 

 certainly appear here, but it does not. 



It will be noticed that fourteen normal parents in the fourth 

 generation have but twenty-eight offspring, whereas seven 

 abnormal parents have thirty-three. This does not signify 

 that the abnormals are prepotent, as might be inferred. The 

 cause was explained by one of the abnormal ladies, who said: 

 "They always pick us up first. " The abnormals all along the 

 line have married earlier in life than the normals, so that when 



