Methods of Investigation of Human Inheritance

摘要

T HE problems of investigation of human inheritance are multiple and actually quite different from the problems that face an individual who would study inheritance in other forms, where controlled experimental observations can be made. We are, of course, limited in our primary material to the observation of what is happening under natural circumstances in human society. The study of human inheritance is limited not only by this fact, but also by the fact that we live essentially as long as the people whom we hope to study; therefore, in general, we are fortunate if we can observe more than one or two generations at a given cross section of time in which we make our studies, and as we shall see in discussing the problems which we face in the investigation of human inheritance, this becomes a very serious and sometimes quite critical problem in the evaluation of results.