The gipsy grandmother has a very prominent type of nose. It is characterised by three chief features: First, the broad base on which the external narial apertures are lodged; second, the marked convexity of the contour of the bridge; third, the well-defined or sharp angularity of the general form. Her son's nose differs from hers in all three of these points. His wife's nose is of the more rounded type and differs very widely from that of the gipsy grandmother (her mother-in-law). The three girl children of these two parents clearly do not possess a nose like that of their grandmother. The two younger daughters appear to resemble their mother, while the oldest appears to be an intermediate between her mother and father. So far then there is no feature of any special interest.
But it is otherwise when we come to deal with the nose of the son (grandson of the old gipsy woman). For it resembles hers in all three of the marked features which give to her nose its distinctive and prominent form. The convexity of the bridge is, perhaps, not quite so pronounced, but then he is still young, and this is a feature likely to become accentuated with age.
Two features of Mendelian interest are shown in this group of a grandmother, two parents and four grandchildren. First, there is a hereditary transmission of nose type from grandmother to grandson. Second, there is a clean segregation of the nose type manifested by the brother, from the contrasted nose type or types exemplified by his three sisters. In addition, the case is interesting since it manifests segregation of characters in the offspring of parents of different races, i.e., a gipsy and a native of the West of England.
In the absence of precise information concerning the form of nose of the gipsy grandmother's husband, and of their five other children, and of the brothers and sisters of the grandmother, it is difficult to formulate a scheme showing a definite Mendelian inheritance in this case. But the two features alluded to in the preceding paragraph are strongly suggestive of inheritance according to Mendelian principles.
We are indebted to Mrs. Rose Haig Thomas for the general facts of this case and for the photograph of the group.
EUROPEAN V. AMERICAN RED INDIAN.
A few years ago I had an opportunity of meeting two friends who had spent many years in different parts of Canada and were acquainted with families who were derived from an ancestry partly European and partly North American Indian. I gathered from my friends, in virtue of much kindness and patience upon their part, some valuable facts concerning the nature of various facial features in the offspring of the two mixed races—European and Red Indian. I purpose here to deal with two families and with only one character, i.e., the type of nose. The Red Indian and European type of nose are easily distinguishable. In the Red Indian the nose is prominent and its frontal profile is formed by two lines which diverge from the bridge towards the base. The latter is, in consequence, very broad. The form of nose is sometimes known as the busqué or curved type, since its lateral profile is in outline markedly aquiline. But examination of a series of photographs of Red Indians shows some variation in the lateral profile, since some are decidedly concave. But the broadness at the base is apparently never diminished; it is always marked and unmistakable. The well-pronounced Indian nose can always be easily distinguished from the European nose by persons who have had a long acquaintance with both races. But cases do occur where even an experienced observer would feel some doubt in expressing an opinion as to which type a given nose belonged. Such cases are, however, not common.
From the pedigrees of families derived from a mixed racial parentage in my possession, I select two for exhibition at this Congress. The first is that known as "Family 5" in my list. In this case a Scotchman (Generation A, S) married a full-blood Indian woman. They had a son and daughter (Generation B, 2 and 3). The half-breed son had the Indian type of nose. The daughter had a small and well-shaped European nose.