In class, I like to use the sad case of the Russian
royalty as a dramatic demonstration of what can happen with a sex-linked
trait. (And may I gently point out that the website quoted below [http://www.pluvoy.com/hemo.html]
leaves a bit to be desired? For one thing
[spelling mistakes aside...you've got to be suspicious of a hemophilia
website that misspells "hemophiliac"], note that Queen Victoria herself did
not have hemophilia, as incorrectly stated in the first paragraph.)
I present to my classes an intriguing theory
(popularized in England, I understand, with some venom from the other
side): Queen Victoria was most probably a carrier of
hemophilia, since she did not appear to have inherited the recessive gene
from her father of record (he was "hemophilia free"). That leaves two
possibilities: Either her recessive hemophilia gene was a
mutation (chances are estimated at 1:10,000 to 1:100,000, depending on
whose statistics you quote) OR she was illegitimate. (There is some
serious consideration for that possibility, palace intrigues being what
they often are.) If the latter is the correct explanation, history would
likely have been changed: Victoria would not have been queen, her daughter
Alexandra would not have married Nicholas of Russia, AND MAYBE the Russian
Revolution might not have happened since Rasputin, who was instrumental in
"treating" their son Alexis, would not have been around to influence the Russian
royalty.
(I PROMISE you that I introduce this in class
suggesting that it may be idle speculation but that if true, in this case,
sex-linked traits could have altered history. And it's a nice blend of
history, psychology and maybe Urban Legend. Ha ha.)
I have a nice Royal Russian Family tree that I use
in class to further illustrate this scenario. Contact me if you are
interested. I can attach it as a PowerPoint or (I think) as a jpeg.
(I don't want to attach a megabyte-heavy email if no one is
interested.)
I promise you, this scenario also jolts students
away from their glassy-eyed "DNA and genetics" mindset.
Beth Benoit
University System of New
Hampshire
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, March 22, 2004 7:08
PM
Subject: Re: incest taboos
And then there is this from a hemophilia
website:
Hemophilia in Royal Families
Probablythe world's most
famous hemophilic family was that of Queen Victoria of England. In those
times, princes and princesses from one country often married princes and
princesses from another country. Because Queen Victoria had hemophilia, she
passed it on to her children, and eventually there were hemophiliacs
throughout the royal houses of Spain, Germany, and Russia.
Because Queen
Victoria and her family were important, hemophilia became important, too.
Queen Victoria's son Leopold had severe hemophilia A. There wasn't any known
way to stop his bleeding, so Leopold had special servants to protect him from
injuries. He lived to the age of 31, long enough to marry and become a
father.
In Germany, Queen Victoria had a grandson named Waldmar, who was
born in 1889. He recieved better care for his hemophilia A than Leopold had,
because people were learning more and more about it. With blood transfusions,
Waldmar lived to the age of 56.
One of Victoria's granddaughters was named
Alexandra. She married the rules of Russia, Nicholas. Their son, Alexis, was
born in 1904. Alexis had hemophilia A and like Leopold, was protected. His
parents tried many different doctors and treatments. They tried giving Alexis
special things to eat and drink. When he bled into his knee, they tried to
apply pressure above his knee. They tried wrapping his legs with a special
kind of tree bark. Finally, they turned to a holy man named Rasputin. Nobody
is sure what Rasputin did for Alexis. Today, we think that he found a special
way to help Alexis relax by telling him stories or by putting him in a trance.
Although this probably didn't stop the bleeding any sooner, it helped Alexis
forget about his pain for awhile.
Another of Queen Victoria's
granddaughters, Victoria, married the King of Spain and had a son with
hemophilia A named Alfonso. He was angry with his mother about his hemophilia
and he ran away to America. When he continued bleeding after some minor
surgery in 1935, he recieved a transfusion of blood. The transfusion worked,
Alfonso stopped bleeding and recovered from his surgery
Dr. Bob
Wildlbood
Lecturer in Psychology
Indiana University Kokomo
Kokomo, IN
56904-9003
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED].
On 22
Mar, 2004, at 18:59, Beth Benoit wrote:
Yes, I think it's agreed by all that good dominant genes are
going to get you decent offspring. What the article pointed out is
that perhaps the horror of "inbreeding" is exaggerated. Obviously, if
you have two bad recessive genes, the offspring is likely in trouble.
But the very fact of their being recessive lowers the statistical
probability that they'll meet another "like kind." I guess that's
key.
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