430 
Miscellanea 
represent the general Jewish population. We must actually measure the "Jewislmess" by 
analysing it into its component factors and measuring thern by accepted and specially devised 
anthropometric methods — such as the nasal index, the cephalic index, the profile angle, etc., 
together with any number of new facial measurements which it would be quite easy to devise, 
and also pigmentation determinations. Where, as in man, we cannot be certain of the gametic 
constitution of an individual, we can only guess at it by an inquiry as to purity of the ancestry 
and the somatic characters both in Gentile and Jew. This, especially in regard to non-Jewish 
looking Jews, has been wholly omitted by Dr Salaman in each individual case. From such 
knowledge we can, by well-known biometric methods, calculate the probable character of the 
offspring. The result of such an investigation may be to confirm Mendelian theory — as to that 
I make no assertion. But we stand now, and until this fact has penetrated into the Mendelian 
consciousness we shall continue to stand, in the position indicated by Weldon ten years ago — 
"the fundamental mistake which vitiates all work based on Mendel's method is the neglect of 
ancestry and the attempt to regard the whole effect upon the offspring produced by a particular 
parent as due to the existence in the parents of particular structural characters ; while the 
contradictory results obtained... show clearly enough that not only the offspring themselves but 
their race, that is, their ancestry, must be taken into account before the result of pairing them 
can be predicted." 
IV. On "Cancer Houses," from the Data of the late 
Th. Law Webb, M.D. 
By KARL PEARSON, F.R.S. 
The data dealt with in the present paper contain a record of the house distribution of 377 
cases of cancer occurring between 1837 and 1910 in the Madeley registration subdistrict. They 
include both cases of sarcoma and carcinoma. It has not been possible to separate the two, 
for in many cases the entry is merely cancer. The data include the exact position of the house, 
its water supply ; the age, occupation, and date of death of subject, and the organ affected by 
the growth. The data consist, besides the record of cases, of large scale maps of the district 
upon which every inhabited house is marked in with blue wash and every house in which a case 
of cancer followed by death has occurred in the given period with red wash. A red cross marks 
existing cases of cancer in the living. The collection was formed by Th. Law Webb, Esq., M.D. 
The deaths from cancer are as follows : 
1831—1840: [20?]* 1841-1850: 14 1851—1860: 20 
1861—1870: 48 1871—1880: 41 1881—1890: 77 
1891—1900: 81 1901—1910: 88. 
The number of cancer deaths has thus increased very considerably, but the population has 
increased + and its average age has no doubt very considerably increased, so that it is not 
possible to say whether this increase of cancer deaths marks an actual increase of cancer. 
* Based on four years of the decade only. 
t Not very markedly, and lately it has fallen again. 
