Volume X 
APRIL, 1914 
No. 1 
BIOMETRIKA 
CONGENITAL ANOMALIES IN A NATIVE 
AFKICAN RACE 
By HUGH STANNUS STANNUS, M.D. Lond, Medical Officer, Nyasaland. 
(1) I HAVE thought it would be of interest to put on record some observations 
made by myself in Nyasaland during the past seven years, on the subject which 
appears as the title of this paper. 
These observations relate to members of a native population of Bantu stock, 
belonging to several main tribes, namely, Mananja, Yao, Ngoni and Tumbuka, 
with a few references to the Nkonde in the north and the Nguru from the south- 
east. 
My interest in the subject was aroiised by the frequency with which some 
abnormalities wei'e seen and I think the facts I bring forward will go to shew that 
this unusual incidence is real and not only the result of the ease with which 
observations may be made among a partially clothed community. 
Statistics dealing with the subject, to be of value, must treat of large numbers, 
such have however only been possible in a few instances to be referred to later. 
I speak therefore largely from impressions in appraising the rarity or otherwise of 
any particular condition. It should be remembered in this direction that the 
cases now to be reported have been met with more or less casually, most of them 
w^hile travelling on the path or in some village, few in the course of Native 
Hospital work and none in any Special Department. 
Classification is a matter of some difficulty for many reasons and as the number 
of anomalies to be described is not very large it is perhaps more convenient to 
consider the various conditions according to the anatomical part affected. 
One large section of congenital anomalies. Anomalies of Pigmentation, I have 
already dealt with {Biovietrika, Vol. ix. pp. 333 — 365), and they will not be 
touched on in the present paper. 
Biometrika x 1 
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