SOME OF MY REMINISCENSES OF PROFESSOR J.B.S. HALDANE

During the Eleventh International Congress of Genetics held in September 1963 at The Hague in The Netherlands, Haldane concluded his plenary lecture on "The Implications of Genetics to Human Society'', with a few remarks. "I want to conclude with a plea for research in human genetics throughout the world. It must, I think. be conducted mainly by people of the same race and tradition on their subjects. India has many disadvantages. Birth, marriages and deaths are not fully registered, and laboratory facilities are very poor. But there are compensative advantages. I begin with a trivial one. Most of the body surface of Indian males, and the feet of most women, are open to inspection. My colleague Ajit Ray, trained as an anthropologist. has just joined me. I suggested that he examined local people for colour vision. But I had evidently taught him a little genetics. For in his first three weeks, besides testing colour vision. he discovered three pedigrees of a foot deformity characterized by a short fourth toe, due to an incompletely penetrant autosomal dominant which shortens the fourth metatarsus....’