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113
with life). This survey was combined with that of the Greater
London Council so that no family was visited more than once.
The aim was first to estimate the risks of these malformations
occurring more than once in a family and second to study any
possible metabolic triggering mechanisms which might act on a
foetus already genetically predisposed to these conditions.
When this second study is completed, information on these
aspects of central nervous system malformations will be invaluable
in genetic counselling for parents.
South East Regional Survey of Certain Chromosome Anomalies
and Congenital Malformations
Health visitors continued to notify these cases to the Paediatric
Research Unit at Guy's Hospital.
The conditions studied were:—
Major defects of the central nervous system
Hare-lip and cleft palate
Infantile pyloric stenosis
Down's Syndrome, (mongolism)
Intersex States
Hirschsprung's Disease
Autosomal chromosome anomalies
Certain changes in the type of defect to be notified were
envisaged for 1970.
Radiation History of Parents of Mongols
At the end of 1969, the Department was requested to help in
another survey by the Paediatric Research Unit of Guy's Hospital.
This was an attempt to obtain radiation histories of parents of
mongols, matched against similar radiation histories of parents
of children handicapped in other ways where there is no likelihood
that exposure to radiation could be a factor.
The parents studied (with certain necessary exclusions) will
be those of mongols (and control children) who have attained the
age of six months and have not yet reached their eleventh birthday.
In Greenwich, 42 such families of mongol children have
been approached for their co-operation.
Research Development Project in Compensatory Education
This survey, by the Education Department of the University
College of Swansea, began during 1968 and continued into 1969.
The aim was to discover more about the needs of infant school
children and their reponse to schooling.