A Study of the Genetics of Galactosaemia

The medical world, of recent years, has shown an increasing interest in the hereditary metabolic dis-orders and considerable research has been under-taken in an endeavour to follow the physical and biochemical problems involved. It is generally accepted that both the presence and absence of enzymes or enzyme functions are determined genetically, but it is not yet known whether a single gene, the specific unit of heredity, is responsible for a single or for several enzymes. It is most probable that the capacity for a definite enzyme reaction is inherited as a dominant characteristic, whereas its absence is likely to be of a recessive nature. Harris (1953), in his Introduction to Human Biochemical Genetics, pointed out that in 1923