Mongolism Following Intercurrent Infectious Disease in Pregnancy

Abstract

IT IS generally agreed that mongolism is not hereditary in the sense that hemophilia and color blindness are hereditary.^{1 , 2} Abundant evidence¹ shows that the risk of mongolism is greater in mothers of advanced age than in those who are younger. There is also a higher frequency of mongolism in homozygote as contrasted with heterozy-gote twins.³ By some this is interpreted to mean that the ovum or sperm is defective. Early reports tending to implicate diseases like syphilis, tuberculosis, malaria and alcoholism² are inadequate to explain the large majority of cases. Indeed, no one etiology has been shown for the condition. . . .