In a previous work the Authors have reported that the so-called «Klippel-Feil Syndrome» should in many cases be ascribed to a hereditary disease of the axial skeleton. This disease can express itself in various degrees (macroforms or microforms) fundamentally identified by fissure and synostosis: the Authors suggested that the disease might be identified as «schisosynostosis axialis congenita familiaris».

In the present work the Authors report the case of a twin suffering from congenital osseous torticollis, whose co-twin, apparently healthy, was found instead to be affected by posterior synostosis of C2 and C3 and by fissure of S1 and S2, as well as bv sacralization of L5 and traces of cervical platyspondyly.

In the same family the father was found to suffer from basal segmentation of the dens epistrophei, by cervical kyphosis and fissure of S1; a brother was affected by synostosis of the laminae of C2 and C3.

In the discussion of the case the Authors come to the conclusion that congenital osseous torticollis can be ascribed (as was the case with Klippel-Feil's Syndrome) to «schisosynostosis axialis congenita familiaris» of which it represents another possible anatomo-clinical expression.

This study is based on pedigrees of 479 patients with Primary Rheumatism (287 patients with Rheumatic Fever and 192 with Rheumatoid Arthritis) which are compared with pedigrees of 300 controls. The conclusion of this study is that the predisposition to Rheumatic Fever and to Rheumatoid Arthritis is trasmitted by a single principal autosomal gene wich is dominant and has reduced penetrance and variable expressivity.

The appearance of the acute and the chronic forms of the disease is in function of accessory modifying factors, as genetic and acquired ones. These factors condition the variation of the organic reactive response into the ambit of «type of reactivity» trasmitted by the principal factor. The possible existence of accessory modifying factors, admitted because the way of appearance of the disease in the various generations of families, it occurs in similar situations of human and experimental genetics.

The predisposition to primary rheumatic disease has no genetic relationship to the diathesis of allergic diseases and the diathesis of degenerative connective tissue disorders (mesenchymotic diathesis).

Data on congenital total color-blindness were collected from the Japanese literature and through private communication, and tested for partial sex-linkage. Twenty sibships derived from consanguineous marriages, in which mode of relationship of the parents was fully known, were analyzed by using the direct method, and the crossover values 37.9-39.0% were found. Remaining 26 complete sibships were analyzed by using the indirect method, and a crossover value of 23.7% was obtained.

The higher recombination value derived from the direct method may possibly due to inaccurate information about paternal genotypes.

The simultaneous occurrence of sarcoidosis in two 24yearold white men who where enzygotic twins is reported. Manifestations of the disease as well as its clinical course were identical in both twins.

The Authors refer the results of the genetical research on 91 probands with cancer of the corpus uteri (unselected sample of the 144 collected cases). In comparison with a suitable control material significant higher familial incidences result in females for uterine cancers and in males and females together for cancers of all sites.

Two types of Polydactyly are described. Preaxial polydactylism is a relatively rare trait, involving a varying degree of duplication of the thumb. X-ray evidence is presented for this condition in a baby girl when first born and 5½ months later, showing the nature of its development. X-ray of the parents revealed that the mother was affected and the father was normal. Evidence points to the possibility that this trait follows a simple autosomaly type of inheritance. Postaxial polydactyly, the more common type, generally involves a duplication of the little finger (5th) with a varying degree of expression. A pedigree of a Negro family is described and X-ray evidence for this trait is given. Each duplicated miniature finger consists of two small but well formed phalanges. The trait seems to be transmitted as an incomplete dominant.

1. For reporting results of calculations of blood group frequencies no more significant figures should be used than are justified by the size of the series tested.

2. Technical and clerical mistakes have been responsible for gross discrepancies in reports on blood group distribution published in the literature, which qualified investigators can recognize by mere inspection of the data.

3. Maximum likelihood calculations are complex and laborious and require a mastery of mathematics which few workers possess. Even in the hands of experts gross errors have resulted when carrying out the laborious computations, so that such calculations are not only expensive but impracticable and dangerous.

4. The application of maximum likelihood calculations by Boyd to two series of individuals tested for the M-N-S types has yielded estimates of gene frequencies differing only in the third decimal place from the values obtained by the author with the aid of simple square root formulae. When one considers, even disregarding the possibility of technical and clerical errors, that the sizes of these two series justified the use of only two significant figures, it is evident that the maximum likelihood method contributed only a dubious increase in „ accuracy ”. Therefore, such calculations consume misdirected energy and place emphasis on superficialities while disregarding more important factors which can affect the accuracy of the data.

5. Many investigators when studying the distribution of the blood groups make the tacit but incorrect assumption that the population is undergoing random mating and is therefore homogeneous. This appears to be one basis for the recent series of fallacious reports on the supposed relationship between the blood groups and various diseases.

6. Confusion in the blood grouping field is due to the fact that most of the articles and books which are published have been written by individuals who have only superficial knowledge and understanding of the subject. The widespread use of the incorrect G-D-E notations reflects the lack of mastery of Rh-Hr serology shared by these workers.

7. It is significant that the same workers who are enthusiastic for maximum likelihood calculations also endorse the pointless studies on blood group distribution in disease, and the use of the superficially attractive but fallacious C-D-E notations.

While traveling in East Africa, three typical cases of hairy ears were observed incidentally in natives of India, two of whom were from Goa. The inheritance in all three cases was compatible with location of the gene in the Y-chromosome. Two other independent cases have been reported to me from the same general part of India, southeast of Bombay, which indicates a considerable frequency of the gene in this area.

The only previously known pedigree of this condition came from Italy in 1907, and several independent cases in males are described in the early Italian literature. In all these Italian families the hairy ears were associated with insanity or other psychiatric conditions, but this association may have been fortuitous, and hairy ears may be as frequent in Italy as in India.