After elaborating the data supplied by 351 questionnaires of a survey addressed to 1,241 twin-pairs, the Author shows differences in the behavior of MZ and DZ twin-pairs as to the sports phenomenon. By a first criterium of analysis, relative to sports practice in general, intra-pair dissimilarity is found to correspond to 6% in the case of MZ and to 85% in the case of DZ twin pairs. A second criterium of analysis concerned the kind of sport practiced by pairs concordant as to sports practice in general: the observed concordance as to the kind of sport practiced was more frequent in MZ then in DZ twin-pairs. By a third criterium concerning individual role and performance, the Author has been able to demonstrate that the distribution of DZ pairs, as to concordance, follows opposite patterns than that of MZ pairs. The Author concludes that sports activity, besides exogenous influences, (social environment, training, economic level etc.) is certainly also conditioned by genotypic, hereditary factors.

The Authors present two MZ (one ♂ ♂ cf and one ♀ ♀) and four DZ (two ♂ ♂ and two ♂ ♀) twin-pairs aged from 7 to 12, selected among the Institute's pairs, as representing different etiopathogenetic mechanisms of stammering.

After summarizing the literature on the inheritance of logopathy, the Authors discuss the clinical cases and draw the following conclusions:

a) Stammering does not always follow the laws of dominance and recessivity;

b) There is no evidence of a sex-linked transmission;

c) Other logopathies, like battarism and tachylalia seem to possess a common substratus with stammering.

An individual mosaic for eye and hair color is described. Possibly the subject is heterozygous at a single locus with pleiotropic effects on both hair and eye color. It is proposed that a genetic change, most probably a point mutation, occurred in a prospective melanoblast during early development. Migration of the derivatives of this cell from the neural crest into the affected regions would account for the light-colored hair and eye. It is not likely that the present mosaic condition will be transmitted because it is most probably a case of somatic mosaicism.

The author reports cases of senile Scintillatio nivea of the vitreous present in the same family (one sister and two brothers). This is the third observation of familial cases of vitreous scintillatio; the first observation was noted in 1937 by Bietti. These familial cases of senile Scintillatio nivea of the vitreous make one suspect that metabolic disturbances are present on a constitutional basis in these familial subjects.

A description is given of the first case in the literature of practically simultaneous occurrence of central serous retinopathy in a monozygotic twin-pair.

The authors have described two brothers, both affected by epidermolysis bullosa, struck at the same time by poliomyelitis anterior acuta having identical paralytic manifestations concerning the lower limbs and an almost reversed asymmetrical affection concerning the muscular groups of the upper limbs. Owing to the presence of a congenital desease, the Authors have considered the existence in the above mentioned brothers of a particular predisposition also for poliomyelitic infection.

Description of a family five members of which, in four generations show the syndrome mentioned in the title. The mode of inheritance is dominant, with a rather strong penetrance and a great variability in the expressivity. The importance of genetic counseling is stressed.

Early students of the M quadruplets considered that the dermatoglyphic traits and physical measurements corroborated a monozygotic origin. More careful analysis in terms of variance shows that the ridge counts, at least, are quite inconsistent with data from monozygotic twins. However, when several quantitative measures are considered together by a method of combined relative likelihoods of separate pair differences, the evidence against monozygosity is less impressive than the contrary evidence from qualitative traits including blood groups. It is concluded that quadruplets tend to vary more than twins and/or that some genotypes are much more variable than others, at least with respect to dermal ridge counts.

Three cases of hereditary myoclonic epilepsy have been observed among ten siblings in a Negro family. Electroencephalograms of the parents, three normal siblings and two of the three affected siblings have been recorded and all show abnormalities of a similar type. These are of a generalized nature revealing no focal damage. This type of abnormality has been observed in an affected male and two normal siblings by Watson and Denny-Brown.

The autosomal recessive mode of inheritance observed in the present study is consistent with the transmission most frequently reported in myoclonic epilepsy. We believe that abnormal electroencephalographic patterns are associated with this gene and that these patterns may be useful in the detection of heterozygous carriers.

The Authors describe from the electro-phoretic, biochemical, spectrophotometric and chromatographic points of view the slow Hb as observed in 5 family groups from Ferrara and Bologna, in 4 of which they found an Hb L, while the 5th presented an Hb D. A new Hb is therefore added to the numerous abonrmal hemoglobines already found in Italy (Hb S, Hb G, Hb D, Hb K, Hb H, Hb J, abundant Hb A2): the Hb L, which is rather frequent in the region of Ferrara.

As for the Hb D, its presence in different regions of Italy is stressed, in as far as the first family, previously described, came from Calabria, and the present one from Bologna.

The Authors have observed two familial cases presenting the Stilling-Turk-Duane Syndrom. In one of them it has been possible to carry-out the electromyography. The Authors conclude that, though there is no evidence of a peripheric muscular lesion, the existence of an intranuclear nervous lesion is quite likely.