Statistical inquiries relative to an hereditary predisposition to cancer -have shown that in 13.22 per cent, of all cases of the disease some relative of the patient had died from a malignant growth. With regard to carcinoma of the stomach, Lebert found a family history of cancer in 7 per cent, of his cases, Haberlin in 8 per cent., Brautigam in 12 percent., Schiile in 6.5 per cent., and Osier and McCrae in 7.3 per cent. In our own series, one or other parent had died of cancer in 6 per cent., and a brother or sister in 2 per cent. It must be remembered, however, that all these figures relate to hospital patients, the majority of whom are profoundly ignorant of their family history. In private practice a cancerous history is obtained in about 16 per cent. The mere fact that a patient with gastric carcinoma was related to some one who died of cancer has little bearing upon the question of the hereditability of the disease, since one in every twenty-one men and one in every twelve women who attain the age of thirty-five die of some malignant affection. What is of importance is the occurrence of carcinoma of the same organ in successive generations. This homotypic transmission of the complaint has so often been pointed out that a few examples will suffice to illustrate it. In the Bonaparte family, Napoleon the First, his father, his brother Lucien, and two of his sisters, Caroline and Pauline, all died of carcinoma of the stomach. Manichow has recorded that twenty-three families resident in one district had sixty-nine cancerous members between them, of whom fifty-seven died of gastric cancer and four others of malignant growths of the intestine or liver. Among our own cases, the gastric complaint appeared in one instance in three generations, while in another three brothers, their father and a sister, all succumbed to it. It is interesting to observe that the predisposition is usually most marked in children of the same sex as the cancerous parent. Thus, if the mother is affected, the daughters will exhibit the greatest liability, while in the case of a cancerous father it is the male issue that are principally attacked. It is often stated that a family predisposition to cancer favours its precocious development; but we are personally of opinion that the gastric disease has a curious tendency to appear at the same age in each generation, and that the popular superstition upon this point has, consequently, a solid groundwork of fact. It is occasionally observed that the tendency to the disease is transmitted through some member of the family who had personally escaped. Thus we find it appearing in several members of a family whose uncles, aunts, and perhaps grandparents, had been affected in a similar manner, while the parent had lived to a great age. Less frequently a grandparent will transmit the disease to grandchildren, while all the immediate offspring remain free from cancer. In 18 per cent, of our cases one or both parents were stated to have died at a very advanced age, and in several instances the grandparents had also exceeded the usual span of life. This curious longevity among the progenitors of cancerous families has often been the subject of comment (Roger Williams), and serves to emphasise the fact that malignant disease is particularly apt to attack those who are considered to be constitutionally healthy. Lastly, it may be noted that persons who die from gastric cancer are often endowed with great reproductive fecundity, and are themselves members of large families. In our series the average number of children was 6.6, whereas in the general community the average number of a family is 4.6 (Farr). Conversely, it is rare to find an only child attacked by carcinoma of the stomach.