Clinical Genetics

Extract

The Committee of the Xth International Congress of Genetics had the excellent idea of acquainting the public of Montreal, Canada, with the practical utility of Genetics by organising a Public Exhibition under the slogan of: “Genetics in the Service of Man”.

If we were to choose a slogan that would best summarise our work at this Conference, I think we could suggest the following: “Genetics in the Service of Medicine”.

For one third of this Conference's papers, panel discussions, symposia and reports, has dealt with normal man, whereas two thirds considered diseased man. Just as, in Medicine, knowledge of normal man is the natural prerequisite for the understanding of human pathology; so in Genetics, knowledge of the heredity of normal traits, both of the individual and of the population, is the necessary prerequisite for the knowledge of Genetics of human disease.

Genetics dealing with disease now bears a name everywhere introduced and generally accepted: “Medical Genetics”.

The subject of my paper, however, carries a different name: “Clinical Genetics”, and I would now like to justify its choice.