Hereditary Deformities

Abstract

THE articles upon this subject in NATURE, Sept. 8, Oct. 20, and Nov. 3, remind me of what I learned fifteen years ago while visiting tribes of Sioux Indians, assembled to the number of 5,000, near the mouth of the Yellow Medicine River, in Minnesota. The Indians were collected at this point for the purpose of receiving their annuities from the U. S. Government, and were accompanied by their families. It is customary for the squaws of their tribes to have tattooed upon the prominences of their cheek-bones small discs, of from one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch in diameter. I was informed by a physician, who has passed much of his time with these tribes, that sometimes a child was born with these marks. This was confirmed by the U S. Government Indian Agent. I had no means of verifying these statements; they were believed by my informants, who were gentlemen of veracity.