The Authors have studied from the genetical point of view two family cases, mainly ophthalmological, with the following relevant findings:

Case 1) Proposita: female MZ twin, aged 13, suffering from facial paralysis on the left, with acute onset and persisting after two years, accompanied by the phenomenon of “Crocodile tears”. In the proposita, her co-twin, a single-born sister and the mother a parakinesia is found, consisting of a degree enophthalmus and of a narrowing of the left palpebral fissure when the left eyeball is adducted.

Case 2) Propositus: six-years-old boy affected by ocular albinism, as are 7 more males and 2 females in the family, while 3 females (including the propositus' mother) only present a partial depigmentation of the fundus (metaform). The transmission of ocular albinism has been found both through the female with a metaform and directly from father of sons.

After an earlier report about twins and sports the question of dependence of the aptitude for sports from the genotype is again examined. Examples are provided by families of famous international sportsmen as well as by families from own larger examinations.

It is established that the proportion between parents and siblings in the sport-families is about 1: 1 and probably dominant genes are the cause of hereditary talents for sports. No evidence could be given for recessive inheritance.

As sporting talents are to be seen in many different forms, several independent genes for sporting endowment and accordingly heterogeny may be supposed.

As the results of the twins examinations have shown, further examinations on families with special sporting capacity remain to be seen.

The result of the examinations of Prof. Dr. Luigi Gedda are of special importance.

New researches have made it evident that besides the two normal Hb, the adult one (a) and the phoetal (f), there are other pathologic Hb: c, e, s, d, g, h, i.

These Hb, excepting the h, are present in the hetherozygote on every healthy person and in the homozygote, excepting the g Hb, determine chronic hemolitic anemia.

The f Hb, or a very similar Hb, is present in the Thalassemia minor and major, in some homozygote cases of abnormal Hb, in the interreaction between two different genes of these Hb, or between one of these genes with the one of Thalassemia.

We may retain that the genes a, c, s, d, e, g, i, form an allelomorphic series. The gene Th is not a part of this series.

Since in the homozygotes ss, cc (in absence of the gene a) the quantity of abnormal Hb does not always reach the same percentage, we may logically retain that the different quantity of abnormal Hb possessed by the s and c hetherozygotes depends from the different synthetic capacity of the genes of the two abnormal Hb. The appareance of f Hb may be the expression of a phenomenon of physiopatological compensation, which occurs when Hb a formation is prevented.

The Authors after a brief critical review of the literature on the familial incidence of uterine cancer, refer some clinical and statistical data of the 144 cases of cancer of the corpus and of the 418 cases of cancer of the cervix uteri that have been collected during their work.

Young gastrulae of Triton alpestris were medianely transsected with a quick cut effected by means of a glass needle. On each of the open median planes of the two halves was grafted the whole presumptive epidermis of a second and, respectively, of a third gastrula in the normal animal-vegetative orientation (fig. 1). Each of the right and left twin combinations thus produced contained therefore all the organ rudiments in half the normal quantity - with the exception of the epidermis rudiment which appeared in one and a half times the normal quantity.

The transplanted epidermal rudiment heals in and afterwards takes part in the formation of the embryo. In the course of gastrulation and neurulation the halved blastopore lip completes itself out of the grafted material which participates in the formation of the nervous system and the mesoderm (including probably notochord and myotomes). On the whole, there arise in favourable cases, straight, well-stretched larvae. More frequently, however, are the larvae with incurvations, persisting yolk plug, or with Spina bifida (see Mangold and Testa 1953, figg. 8-a, b, and 9-a, b, and, above, figg. 2-a, 3-a, 10-a, 11-a). The causes of these deficiencies must be looked for in secondary damages occurring during the operation, in incomplete healing processes, and in disturbances of the gastrulation.

As a rule, a far-reaching regulation of the halved rudiments towards bilaterally built organs takes place, but even in favourable cases it could be observed that some organs were slightly underdeveloped on the inner sides of the twins (these are the completed sides). The head, beside such asymmetries, showed synophthalmous and cyclopean deficiencies in most of the cases.

14 Larvae (7 couples) were chosen out of a greater material to investigate on their microscopical sections the regulation of the inner organs. Marked differences were found to exist between the single organs in this regard (see table I, pag. 391). The best regulation was represented in the mesencephalon showing perfect symmetrical structure in most of the cases (figg. 2-b, 8-c, above). The greater part of the other organs could be practically symmetrical, too, in favorable cases with, however, varying frequency. The lowest degree of regulative power appeared in the myotomes and in the rhombencephalon. The most anteriorly situated myotomes were even exceptionless asymmetrical, i. e. completed but imperfectly (figg. 4-b, 7-c); for most of those situated in the trunk and the tail this is likewise the case, in spite of the late date of the formation of the latter (figg. 4-c, 4-d). Sometimes the myotomes of the two sides resulted to be unequal even when the outward appearance of the trunk and tail seemed perfectly symmetrical: it was then found that their structure was of a less compact nature on the completed sides (fig. 4-c). As to the rhombencephalon, it mosdy was distinctly asymmetrical (figg. 5-b,, 7-b), in contradistinction to the often well-developed symmetry of the spinal chord (figg. 2-c, 4-c).

Such differences of size between the two sides are known to occur also with human twins occasionally (Gedda 1951, Testa 1956).

In the six diagnosticahle cases it was found that all the right-hand members of the twins showed situs inversus viscerum, whereas with the left-hand partners only one inverted case was observed, this being a situs inversus cordis.

In the fold formations (poaches) of the transplanted epidermis could be induced the formation of supernumerary organs of an « according-to-region » type, as for instance noses, prosencephalon, eyes, lenses, balancers (fig. 11-b).

The causes supposed to be responsible for the cyclopean and lateral deficiencies are discussed (page 395).

This study is based on pedigrees of 192 patients with rheumatoid arthritis which are compared with pedigrees of 300 controls.

6,3 per cent of all relatives in the first group had rheumatoid arthritis compared to 0,38 per cent of all relatives in the control group. An hereditary predisposition to rheumatoid arthritis is definitevely to be admitted.

This predisposition is due to the presence of a principal autosomal dominant gene with reduced penetrance and variable expressivity. It seems to have no genetic relationship to the diathesis of allergic diseases and the diathesis of degenerative connective tissue disorders (mesenchymotic diathesis).