Inheritance of Digital Malformations in Man

[69]-77 pages with 2 tables and 4 plates. Royal octavo (9 3/4" x 6 1/2") bound in original wrappers. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Volume III, number 3. First edition.

A great deal has been written concerning the abnormities of the hands and feet, and numerous cases of polydactylism, syndactylism, and macrodactylism have been recorded; but, very few cases of hypophalangia or hyperphalangia have ever been noted. The following case of hypophalangia, or diminution in the number of phalanges, came under the author's notice a few years earlier. After careful examination the anomaly was found to be interesting not only as a case of anatomical variation, but also as a study in heredity. All the digits of all the extremities of thirty-seven persons were affected and the anomaly is inherited in conformity with Mendel's law of five generations. Measurements, tracings, photographs, radiographs, plaster casts and complete genealogical tables were made. William C. Farabee, the second individual to obtain a doctorate in physical anthropology from Harvard University, engaged in a wide range of anthropological work during his time as a professor at Harvard and then as a researcher at the University Museum, Philadelphia, but is best known for his work in human genetics and his ethnographic and geographic work in South America.

Condition: Wrapper edges chipped, internally still unread with pages attached else a very good copy.