Abstract
IT is fascinating to examine our friends for hereditary characters which are, so far as we know, innocuous. Taste blindness, position of thumbs when the hands are clasped, and beating time with the left or the right foot are among the characters which have previously been reported as being inherited. K. A. Stiles and J. Schalck (J. Hered., 36, 211 ; 1945) add another character for such analysis. They show that the curvature of the forefinger towards the ulnar side, is inherited, probably as a dominant. It may show unilateral expression, but sometimes involves both hands and more than one finger. It is not pathological. A further inherited character is olfactory blindness, tested through three generations by R. C. Mainland (J. Hered., 36, 144 ; 1945). The inheritance is probably by an autosomal dominant gene. The affected individual cannot smell oil of cloves, lysol, oil of cedarwood, amyl propionate and oil of annise ; he could not distinguish between sour and sweet chocolate or between cloves and cinnamon. The phenyl-thio-carbamide test was normal.
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Inheritance of Human Characters. Nature 157, 800 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/157800a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/157800a0