While I receive, with great joy and pride, the honorary degree of this University, commemorative celebrations to honor the Bohemian scientist Gregor Mendel are being held in the Czechoslovakian town of Brno.

One hundred years ago, Gregor Mendel announced his discoveries concerning the hybridization of “pisum sativum”, and opened to science the way to understand the principles underlying modern Genetics. I feel it my duty to recall with admiring devotion this great man, whose name is just as much connected with Biology, as Galileo Galilei's name is linked to Physics. All the more so, because the honorary degree conferred on me by the President and the Professors of Villanova University is a doctorate in Natural Sciences.

Two other reasons prompt me to recall the work of Mendel. One is that Gregor Mendel was an Augustinian monk, and such an exemplary one indeed, that he directed the Brno Monastery as Abbot from the forty-sixth year of his life to his death. In a personal letter addressed to the Augustinian General, Father Luciano Rubio, on the twentieth February of this year, Pope Paul the Sixth stressed the significance of the fact that the Augustinian Order had given to the Church and to Science such an eminent man. Now, there is no better place to recall the religious gifts and the scientific genius of Gregor Mendel than your University, founded and directed by Augustinian Fathers.

A case of bilateral clouding of corneal homografts in a 24-year-old woman 8 and 9 years after the respective operations, coincidentally with the second month of pregnancy, leads the Authors to a series of considerations and hypotheses on the immunological aspects of keratoplasties.

Differential diffusion of antigens to reach the antibody-forming sites, and of antibodies to reach the antigenic loci on the graft, through the endothelial barriers and the stromal layers, is held responsible for the peculiarities of corneal graft survival, especially in view of the different molecular sizes of antibodies and in connection with primary and secondary immunization. A series of experiments is currently being carried out to test the various hypotheses.

A large kindred (4 generations) with pseudo-pseudo-hypoparathyroidism (PPHP) and the clinical, biological and anthropometric features of this syndrome are extensively described.

The association of PPHP with diabetes, hypertension, hypothyroidism, polyarthrosis and peripheral arteritis is very probably significant.

Gonadal dysgenesis with brachymetacarpy must clearly be distinguished from PPHP.

The transmission of PPHP is probably not sex-linked dominant but autosomal dominant with an incomplete penetrance of about 50%, a varying expressivity and weak familial specificity. Partial sex limiting or sex predominance may occur, instead of true sex-linkage in this condition.

The Authors have observed a high rate of chromosomal morphologic alterations in leukocyte cultures in 10 children who had previously undergone Roentgen irradiation for diagnostic purposes. Temporary alterations have been observed, such as interruptions of chromatine on the proteic thread, defined as achromatic lesions of one or more chromatids; fragmentations of chromatids; fragments without centromere; deletions; ring-chromosomes; dicentric and tricentric chromosomes and, in certain cases, increase of polyploid mitoses, both on account of endo-reduplications or of a lacking cytoplasm division.

Hereditary factors involved in the determination of the size, relative position and type of pattern formed by the dermal ridges in the interdigital areas of the palm have been investigated by means of twin and family studies. The sample consisted of 566 individuals of European descent. The ridge-counts of patterns in the interdigital areas were determined. Correction factors were introduced to compensate for different average counts in each interdigital area. The correlation coefficients between family relatives were calculated using the ridge-counts. The coefficient for monozygotic twins was .88±.04 and for parent and child from .346 to .425 and for sib pairs from .328 to .412. There was no evidence of sex-linkage or of the effects of dominance. Variation appeared to be determined by additive genes but an appreciable amount of variation of non-genetic origin was observed. Bilateral asymmetry in the ridge-count, type of pattern and relative position of the patterns was evident. Concordance rates in twins and other family members and pedigree data provided further evidence of hereditary influence in the determination of the position and type of pattern in the interdigital areas.

The author's purpose is to establish if there exists a propensity between fathers and sons about the papillar figures which are on the apical palanx of the fingers of the hand.

He has examined a sample of 31 families, each of them composed of a father and a number of sons, which generally varied from group to group, one to four, for a total of 76 sons.

After having carefully considered the possible statistical techniques to be employed in the research, the author has concluded that the most satisfactory method is a test directly ensuing from the mathching theory.

The application of the test revealed that for the two middle fingers, the index and the left annular, such a propensity between fathers and sons can be certainly estimated as existing; as to the right annular, the conclusion is doubtful; for the remaining fingers, the propensity is not admissible.

1. Data relating to hypertrichosis of the ear rim, lobe, tragus and antitragus in the Pahira are presented.

2. It has been indicated that (a) hypertrichosis of the rim is associated with that of the lobe, tragus and antitragus, and both may be controlled by the same genotype; (b) it may not be a characteristic of the Mediterranean race alone; and (c) its use as an “anthropological marker” is of limited value.

603 patients suffering from filariasis have been studied for A1A2BO blood groups; 281 for Duffy, Kell and rhesus blood groups; 178 for secretor factor; and 503 for MN blood groups, to find out if there is any association between filariasis and these blood groups. No association, whatsoever, has been found between the blood groups studied and filariasis.