Haemophilia has been known since biblical times as an inherited bleeding condition, as boys born into families known to have the disease were excluded from ritual circumcision in the third century AD (quoted by McKee, 1983). The pattern of inheritance whereby males were affected, whereas females were not (although they could transmit the disease to future generations), intrigued the 19th century biologists and was not adequately explained until the genetic basis of sex was understood. The clinical symptoms of the disease can be very serious and were lifethreatening before replacement therapy was available. Internal bleeding occurred into muscles and joints, often without obviously following any trauma and patients could die of massive internal haemorrhage. Haemophilia A and B pose identical clinical pictures and both show a similar X-linked pattern of inheritance. Their differential diagnosis depends on laboratory clotting tests and they were first clearly distinguished in 1952. Subsequent work showed...

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