Study on a hereditary black blood disease (Tamura and Takahashi's disease).

1. Supplementary notes on the mode of inheritance of this disease a) Blood types The distribution of the ABO blood types of the patients of this disease was as follows : 0, 34.8%; A, 20.92%; B, 25.58%; AB, 18.61%. This distribution is almost identical with that of the general Japanese, among whom type A is less and type 0 is more common, and agrees with the high incidence of type 0 in this North-Eastern district of Japan. The biological race index was 0.84 and lower than that of this pre fecture which is 1.25. From this index this group may be considered as ' Asiatic '. The inheritance of blood types follows the laws of heredity both in the healthy and in the diseased. No conspicuous feature was observed in the distributions of the Q and S blood types. b) Finger prints and palm patterns As to finger prints ulnar loops were found most frequently. Whorls were next, and arches and radial loops were rarely seen. These observa tions accord with the fact that whorls are common in the Pacific coast of the North-Eastern district.