| Reference number | MM/24/8 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Letter from John Burdon Sanderson Haldane, University College London, Gower Street, London, to Reginald Crundall Punnett, Bilbrook Lodge, Washford, Somerset |
| Date | 22 August 1949 |
| Description | Thanks Punnett for the reprint. Gives his thoughts on recessives in heterozygous women, nystagmus and a possible inhibitor in the population, which he thinks might be a general instability of the nervous system. Provides two examples from his own department: Penrose has a case of phenylyketonuria; Mandeville has studied the absence of upper lateral incisors. He hopes that Mandeville can get about 100 pedigrees for his study. Punnett's hypothesis about a translocation is quite possible, but he suspends judgement. Mimics are common in Drosophila, but don't behave as expected if concerned with translocation. The problem with human genetics is that one 'cannot make tests to show that conditions which look alike are due to the same factor even when they are inherited in the same sort of way, and that one has a huge variety of genetic background'. Mandeville's case is borderline, he feels. |
| Extent | 2p |
| Format | Typescript |
| Physical description | On paper |
| Access status | Open |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | Name | Dates |
| NA6225 | Haldane; John Burdon Sanderson (1892 - 1964); geneticist | 1892 - 1964 |