Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1937-06-24
DISPElS AlEGEND
ABOUT HEMOPHILIA
Can Be Inherited by Both
Sexes, Says Scientist.


having bulked large upon this years
agenda of the British Association
for Advancement of Science at
Blackpool, Professor R. Ruggles
Gates impaired to a correspondent
. of the Morning Post of London
some of the secrets on the subject
acquired by the bureau of human
heredity he had recently established
at Kings college, London.
AS an example of popular myth,
Professor Ruggles Gates cited the
case of hemophelia, the hereditary
disease which lies in lack of clot-
ting power in blood and from which
the heir to the Spanish throne is
now suffering in New York-just as
the last Czarevitch, only son Of
Nicholas II, did before him.
''It is generally believed" Profess
sor Ruggles Gates stated, "that
this disease is only shown in males,
and only transmitted through fe-
males. The fact is that it could
be inherited by a woman if she
received the hereditary factor con-
cerned from both sides.
Transmitted Through Male
"Similarily, the disease is only
normally transmitted through the
women of family for the reason
that the males who actively show
the disease seldom survive long
enough to pass it on. There are,
however, few cases on record in
which hemophilia has been trans
mitted through male"
Many of the stories which have
come to the professor have all the
full-blooded flavor of fictional ro-
nance, and yet by the study of such
strange pedigrees Professor Rug
giles Gates believes that much in
formation of scientific value may be
obtained.
If there is one point rather than
another which emergeS from the
meeting, it is that knowledge of hui
man heredity and racial character
istics is still sadly defective.
From Australia has come the
story of woman with double
width thumb. This is a recognized
form of physical abnormality.
What the interviewer found to be
unusual is that Professor Ruggles
Gates correspondent-the last of
her line to bear the stigma-can
trace her descent, without break
through an Italian family back to
an Arab tribe in the eleventh CEN
fury, and that in every generation
through all these 900 years the same
abnormality has made its appear
-ance.
81 have just received a photo
graph showing the genuineness Of
the deformity," Professor Ruggles
Gates said, land documentary ref
erences from which the family
history can be verified.
Case of Scipio Africanus.
"This, however, is not the long
est pedigree of the kind known to
me. It is on record that the Roman
general Scipio AfricanuS, just over
1000 years ago, had an extra fin
ger. There is modern Rumanian
family of the name of Scipion, which
claims descent from Scipio, and al
so bears this deformity. AS is gen.
orally known, Rumania is closely
connected with Italy, both histor-
ically and in language.
Another case which Professor
Ruggles Gates suggests illustrates
the social importance of such in
quiries has lately come to him from
America. 1t is that of an American
woman who had for a time become
mentally deranged after the shock
of seeing her grown-up son killed
before her eyes.
She has now submitted evidence
suggesting that there are in her
family heredity mental qualities of
an undesirable kind which only
show themselves when some such
abnormal shock confronts their
hoororc