Stereochemistry Applied to Biology 115 



The starches from 50 sets of parent and hybrid stocks of a variety of genera 

 and families have teen studied, and it has been found that any individuality 

 of the starch of either parent and also any property common to the starches of both 

 parents may or may not be transmitted to starch of the offspring, and that if trans- 

 mitted it may appear in the same or in modified form ; moreover, that properties 

 may appear in the starch of the hybrid that are not observed in the starch of either 

 parent. 



These studies have been supplemented by macroscopic and microscopic investi- 

 gations of the tissues of 8 sets of parent and hybrid stocks, the results of which, 

 as should logically be expected, are fundamentally in harmony with those of the 

 starch research, and all are in accord with the records of heredity in general and 

 with universally recognized principles of the plant and animal breeder. 



The first chapter treats particularly of criteria of hybrids and mutants ; the 

 intermediateness and lessened vitality of hybrids ; the intermediateness of the 

 starches of hybrids; the intermediateness of macroscopic properties of hybrids; 

 instability and Mendelian inheritance of hybrids and mutants; genetic purity in 

 relation to the intermediateness of hybrids ; theoretic requirements in the properties 

 of starches to conditions in the hybrid corresponding to those of anatomic char- 

 acters ; and unit-characters and unit-character-phases. The second chapter is de- 

 voted to statements of the methods employed, constancy of the results, compara- 

 tive valuations, etc. The third chapter gives brief comparative summaries of the 

 more important data of the histologic properties and the polariscopic, iodine, ani- 

 line, temperature, and various reagent reactions of the starches of each set of 

 parent and hybrid stocks. Chapter 4 includes general and special considerations 

 of the reaction-intensities of the starches of parent and hybrid stocks. Chapter 5 

 summarizes the histologic characters and qualitative and quantitative reactions of 

 the starches of hybrids in relation to the starches of the parent stocks, and of the 

 macroscopic and microscopic characters of the tissues of hybrids in relation to those 

 of the parent stocks. The next chapter is devoted to applications of the results of 

 the researches to the explanation of the developmental changes in the germplasm, 

 and of sports, mutations, and the genesis of species. The final chapter is given over 

 to notes and conclusions. 



The author believes that the specificities of stereoisomerides in relation to 

 tissues, organs, and organisms are among the most extraordinary and fundamental 

 phenomena of living matter, and, therefore, that the principles and methods set forth 

 in these investigations will serve as starting-points for studies that will prove of 

 epochal importance in the unraveling of numberless problems of biology. 



