Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2018
The analysis of family data in the hope of detecting a recognizable pattern in the distribution of disease may be of value in respect of cause and of prevention. The recognition of classical Mendelian ratios, for instance, is both a partial explanation and an opportunity for genetic counselling which may lead relatives to take eugenic measures. In mentally subnormal populations, however, the occurrence of disease in families often shows more complicated distributions. From knowledge of the relationship between cause and distribution models may be constructed with which empirical data may be compared, for instance, in maternal-foetal incompatibility in respect of some antigen, or in polygenically determined diseases showing threshold effects in liability to disease.
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