Science: Lesson

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An instructive if somewhat unsightly object lesson in the laws of genetics has been provided in recent months by M. Etienne Letard of the National Veterinary School at Alfort, France. M. Letard has bred a race of hairless cats. One or two hairless kittens appear from time to time in the litters of two perfectly normal Siamese parents.

According to a report which reached the U. S. last week, M. Letard has mated each of the parents to other cats but from such unions has never obtained a naked kitten. A naked kitten, after growing up and being mated to a normal cat, has uniformly normal litters. But when two of the hairless cats were mated to each other, they had an entirely hairless litter. The hairlessness was thus seen to be a recessive Mendelian character. By mating one hairless animal with another, Dr. Letard has obtained a true-breeding strain. Up to last week no buyers had appeared.