Genetic studies in mental subnormality.

Date:
1973
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Credit: Genetic studies in mental subnormality. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    38/100 (page 24)
    24 GENETIC STUDIES IN MENTAL SUBNORMALITY be found in individuals suffering from clinical disorders not associated with mental deficiency, in normal individuals and in patients with idiopathic mental defect (e.g. Verbov, 1968; Rosner, Steinberg and Spriggs, 1968; Jongbloet and van Kempen, 1968 and Borgaonkar, 1968). In the present study 18 patients had six or more arches but none of those who only had six arches had any gross physical abnormality. In only two families did an affected sib also have an increased number of arches. In family No. 61 both affected females were obese, short and had brachydactyly and each had eight arches. Two affected brothers in family No. 146 were similar in appearance, with asymmetry of the face and undescended testes but as they did not have pyloric stenosis in infancy or any limb abnor¬ mality, they were not considered to have the Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome. The elder sib had eight and the younger ten arches. Rosner et al., 1968 found that approximately 2 per cent of males and females in either normal or mentally retarded populations had six or more arches and this is in contrast to the figures in the present study of 7 • 55 per cent and 6-12 per cent for males and females respectively. (Complete derma toglyphic data for the patients with severe subnormality of both known and unknown aetiology can be obtained from Medical Research Council, Population Genetics Unit, Old Road, Headington, Oxford.)