ON GERMINAL TRANSPLANTATION IN VERTEBRATES. 



1. INTRODUCTION. 



The scientific results described in this paper were obtained from exper- 

 iments begun in the Zoological Laboratory of Harvard University and 

 completed in the Laboratory of Genetics of the Bussey Institution. These 

 experiments were made possible by a grant from the Carnegie Institution 

 of Washington to the senior author, for which grateful acknowledgment 

 is hereby made. The authors desire also to thank Dr. Alexis Carrel, of the 

 Rockefeller Institute, for valuable suggestions as to operative technique. 



The curiosity of zoologists has long been aroused to know whether the 

 reproductive gland of a vertebrate can be successfully transplanted from 

 the body of one individual to another; and, if so, whether the gland will 

 thereafter function in its new environment; and, if it does, whether the 

 nature of its products will remain unaltered. The fact has repeatedly been 

 pointed out that experiments of this sort, if successful, should afford a 

 crucial test of the Lamarckian and the Weismannian views, respectively, of 

 the relation of the germinal substance to its environment and in particular 

 to the body. 



Our own attention was particularly directed to these questions by the re- 

 markable results recently described by Guthrie and Magnus, which seemed 

 to show 'that transplanted ovaries, in a foreign body, liberate products dis- 

 tinctly influenced in nature by that body. To test the correctness of such 

 a conclusion the experiments described in this paper were undertaken. 

 Since it is known that the environment directly influences the nature of 

 the body, if it can be shown further that the body directly influences the 

 character of the inheritance through the sexual products, the Lamarckian 

 principle is established and that of Weismann is disproved. It is therefore 

 of fundamental importance either to confirm or to disprove the results of 

 the authors mentioned. 



We are unable to confirm, we present evidence which tends to disprove, 

 the conclusions reached by Guthrie and Magnus. We do not question the 

 results reported by them, but only the interpretations given by them to that 

 work. 



Every biologist is familiar with the able series of essays in which Weis- 

 mann showed the physiological distinctness of body and germ-plasm. Many 

 will recall also the noteworthy experiments of Heape (1890-1897), by which 



he showed that influences exerted during gestation do not modify the inher- 



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