Further information on the identity of 47,XYY males.

the germ of an idea for explaining how malformations are produced by chromosomal aberrations. Otherwise this branch of pathology is shrouded in complete darkness. I must also apologize for presenting so many peculiar and mysterious diagrams. However, if they have been entertaining, though incomprehensible, I shall feel that I have been excused for asking your attention for such a long time on subject matter which may seem remote from medicine. At one of the best meetings of the Harveian Society that I ever attended, the chief performer was an expert in prestidigitation, and I only wish that I could have been as entertaining as he was on that occasion: only very modest conjuring can be performed with dermatoglyphics. To demonstrate this perhaps I may be permitted to end up with an anecdote. Some years ago a stranger from an eastern country came to my room at University College. He produced, rather furtively, some palm prints and asked me to give an opinion about the person from whom they had been taken. I explained that I did not tell fortunes or estimate character; but I said that they probably came from a normal male, and I assured him that they were not the prints of a certain wellknown type of imbecile. "That is good," he said, "because he is our prime minister." REFERENCES