Human cytogenetics / John L. Hamerton.

  • Hamerton, John L. (John Laurence)
Date:
1971
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Human cytogenetics / John L. Hamerton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/576 (page IX)
    FOREWORD Those who were involved in the beginning of the modern phase of human cytogenetics never fail to be surprised and delighted by the quan¬ tity and variety of discoveries made in a field which burgeoned hardly more than a dozen years ago. New techniques and the successful adap¬ tation of older ones, augmented by the application of principles derived from developments in genetics (especially plant and animal cytogenetics) to human investigations, have resulted in rapid advances. On the technical side, these developments were foreshadowed by the methods of Chrust- schoff and Berlin and by the work of Hsu and Pomerat, but the really important advances came with the use of metaphase-blocking and chromosome-spreading devices and with the greater accessibility of experimental material. It therefore became possible to apply these practical methods to the study of promising clinical areas which had heretofore been examined by inspired guess, prescience, or by beckoning indicators— genetic, cytological, clinical, or epidemiological. Later, simplication of the techniques permitted the extension of cyto- gentic work to human populations and here, especially, we are dealing with work in progress, as we are where the study of human chromosomes is helping linkage and mapping. It is here that we are particularly con¬ cerned with the difficult problem of chromosome identification. This work, in two volumes, is an accumulation of data on subjects as diverse as abnormal sex and soma development, sex determination and mental subnormality, dermatoglyphics and stature, gene and chromosome action, and chromosome behavior —both normal and abnormal, which only yesterday were practically uncharged territories of human genetics and which only now have reached a stage where synthesis and generali¬ zation begin to be possible. Dr. Hamerton has undertaken the heavy and difficult travail of bringing together this information in one source. He ix