On the occasion of the inauguration of the courses of Medical Genetics in the Italian Universities, the Author describes how this new branch of science has developed in other countries, shows the limits of its action, in the sense that it aims to integrating clinical medicine and not to substituting it. Finally, the Author indicates how Medical Genetics has to develop from both scientific and professional standpoints.

Another family in the Åland archipelago (Fennoscandia) suffering from a hemorrhagic disorder (von Willebrand-Jürgens' disease, heredi tary constitutional thrombopathie) is described. This family, so far the largest in the literature, has many common ancestors with the original bleeder families on Åland described in 1926 by v. Willebrand. Of the more than 1300 kindred traced genealogically, 132 (71 women and 61 men) in the five most recent generations have had manifest bleeding disorders in their medical history. Of the ca. 450 living relatives of this family 211 could be examined, and of these 56 females and 50 males were confirmed to be bleeders anamnestically, clinically or, and hematologically. Several cases were analysed exhaustively by modern coagulation tests. The clinical and laboratory hemostatic findings varied widely both inter- and intra-individually. Some patients showed a partial lack of a plasma factor (AHG) coupled with a qualitative platelet defect. Other patients of this family without bleeding disorders had a markedly prolonged bleeding time. The vascular disturbances also vary widely. The consanguinity in this pedigree is unusually high. The autosomal recessive in heritance are discussed. According to the mendelian segregation ratio, a not sex-linked, dominant transmission of the hemmorrhagic diathesis was in question. I has been possible to observe the hemostatic disturbances in 4-5 generations. The penetration of the gene is high, the expressiveness is unsteady.

In Volume VII, 1958 of the A. Ge. Me. Ge a research on the dermatoglyphics of an incestuous family (5 children, their mother, grandmother and grandfather, the latter also being the father of the children) was published. The present paper deals with the morphological features of the face, i.e. the soft parts of the mouth and chin region, of the eye region and of the external nose of the same family.

Theoretically speaking, in a case like this— owning to the increased amount of common alleles—an unusually close phenotypical resemblance among the children might be expected, as, in fact, demonstrated by the morphological analysis. The characters subject to changes by age represent an almostt step by step development and this is confirmed by the two observations carried out in 1934 and 1939.

Considering the variations caused by age, the children don't exceed, generally, the difference of monozytic twins.

Regarding the phenotypical similarity to the adults the theoretical expectation has been more than confirmed. There are close affinities with the grandfather and the mother of the children resembling him. Only a few features are in common with the grandmother and these, for the most part, are features typical of earlier stages of development. As some traits of this kind are characteristic for the grandmother these resemblances are considered to be of a temporary nature only.

The study of the dermatoglyphics revealed a surprising conformity between the children, their mother and their grandfather, while the grandmother differed. In addition two of the children showed a few widely divergent rare traits. Compared with the dermatoglyphics the isolated minor deviations in the morphological characters of the face seem of no importance. On the whole one is impressed how rapidly ancestral loss (« Ahnenverlust ») can lead to an extensive phenotypical homogeneity in a family.

Individuals can be classified into two categories, according to the way of per forming hand clasping: R type, when the fingers of the right hand occupies the uppermost position (sec fig. in Rothschild, 1930), and L type, when the opposite situation occurs (see fig. in Winchester, 1958). Each person has his peculiar way of clasping his hands, and it is believed that the type persists unchanged throughout the whole life. The reason why some persons clasp the hands with the fingers occupying one position, and not the other, is as yet unknown. This fact cannot be explained by relatively large differences in the shape and proportions of the bones of the hand, since it has been shown that a close over-all similarity between them exists (Greulich, 1960). We suggest, however, that even the small differences detected can explain the situation.

Dahlberg (1926), based on twin and populational data, concluded that “there is hardly reason to presume heredity” in the genesis of the trait. His data can be explained well on the basis of a chance distribution, but this hypothesis can not account for the extensive amount of family data (Lutz, 1908; Yamaura, 1940; Kawabe, 1949; Yoshiwara, 1957; and Freire-Maia, Quelce-Salgado and Freire-Maia, 1958), as well as for the large amount of populational data (see Freire-Maia et al. 1958; Yoshiwara, 1957 ; Freire-Maia, 1961), and the ethnic, sex, and age differences detected (see Freire-Maia et al. 1958). Although all those authors presented strong evidences of a genetic component on the genesis of the trait, no simple Mendelian mechanism could explain the data, however.

It has been the intention of the Authors to make a contribution to the study of the distribution of the blood groups ABO, MN and Rh among the population of the region of Lazio. A report is made on the results of 1042 blood-group tests carried out on subjects living in the region under consideration, no account beeing taken of their ethnic origins.

The data observed have been studied to establish the phaenotype frequency, and to ascertain the proportion of the genes (by making use of the methods based on the criterion of « maximum likelihood »). The χ2 test was also used to make a comparison between the diHe-rent ascertainments.

In 502 subjects out of the 1042, the serum was examined for the presence of the antigen « e » which, in fact does not occur very often.

A comparison was made between the sample of the population observed and the results with the same criteria in the choice of the subjects. A comparison with similar investigations carried out by other Authors in the region of Lazio has been possible in the case of the ABO and MN blood groups, while for the Rh group there are comparable investigations only for the provinces of Milan and Pavia.

The composition of the samples examined has shown some differences which have been evaluated by making use of the most appropriate statistical method. The χ2 test enables us to establish, on the basis of the number of degrees of liberty, what the frequency is of the samples whose representative point is more than χ away from the representative point of the sample chosen as a model. If this frequency is below a certain figure, for example 0.05, we may conclude that the empirical sample is a rare one for the distribution chosen as a model; and this divergence is attributed predominantly to systematic factors, since the empirical distribution is a sample corrisponding to another population.

The present population of the region of Lazio, as appears from the researches under examination is at the limits of homogeneity for the distribution of the principle types of the ABO groups: it is difficult to come to a con-elusion concerning the significance of the variation in the frequencies observed by different Authors. In the case of MN group the hypothesis of homogeneity is admissible, but the respective data for the region are as yet too meagre. A comparison between the different populations has given negative results for homogeneity in the case of Rh group.

Differences in results among investigations carried out in the same region must be attributed not only to the criteria of choice of the subjects examined (these also may not be a representative sample of the population), but also in the incomplete ethnic homogeneity of the individuals chosen. This is important for the purposes of anthropology, while for the purposes of forensic medicine it is useful to have a classification of the present population independently of the grouping according to ethnic origin. The frequency rate of blood groups can be evaluated by considering the average of the results of numerous investigations, provided that these are similar to each other at least in part. The percentage figures, taken out of all the investigations made in the region compared with each other, are the following; group A = 39,44%, group B = 11.44%, group AB = 3.98%, group O = 45.14%, group M = 33.09%, group N = 17.73% and for group MN = 49.18%.

After mentioning the main data of literature concerning the subject, the Author reports on the result of some research directed to establish the distribution of antigenes of the Kidd system in the population resident in the region of Latium.

This research has allowed to establish, in 110 individuals examined the presence of the following percentages; Jk (a+) 76.36%; Jk (a—) 23.64%.

The Author calculates further on the relative genie and genotypie incidence and finally calls the attention on the importance of the antigenes of the Kidd system from the forensic-medical point of view for the surveys directed to ascertain the ratio in relationship.

A case of Niemann-Pick disease is reported. This is the fourth described in Italian literature and diagnosed during life. In this case hereditary transmission in homozigous individual is admitted; it is uncertain whether the character behaves as semidominant or recessive.