Russo, A reply to a note of W. E. Castle etc. 31 



of the increase of births in the female sex following injections of 

 Lecithine, trusting to the commonsense of the good reader. 



If Castle does not care to accept this justification as a reason 

 of the choice of sex, I may add that in my researches I have 

 taken into account also the births in the first confinement and that 

 the result confirms the theory of metabolism of the eggs in the 

 production of sex. As I have demonstrated in a recent note 3 ) in 

 the first birth of rabbits injected with Lecithine it often happens 

 that not only the 5$ do not increase but the cfcf are in a great 

 majority, with a general increase in the number of births. The 

 injections of Lecithine have in this case the eft'ect of increasing 

 the general metabolism, of enriching the ovary of plastic material 

 and of impeding the degeneration of the eggs of catabolic type, 

 capable of producing males. 



This is a union of facts which Castle, before judging so lightly 

 ought to study well. 



Putting now aside this argument, I would like to say that 

 Castle, to discredit the results of my researches, avails himself 

 of a note of Heape who thought that the eggs classified by me 

 as male eggs were degenerated. 



Too truly the opinion of Heape is completely erroneous, for 

 the reason that posterior researches have confirmed to me, that in 

 a rabbits' ovary two species of eggs exist, distinguished separately 

 by a special type o Metabolism, that is, eggs of an anabolic or 

 constructive type, containing globules of Lecithine, and eggs of 

 disassimilative or catabolic type, containing crystals of acid fat. 

 I defy therefore Castle to prove unfounded the results of my 

 researches, which I now precise as follows. 



1 st The injections of Merks' Lecithine (solution of 15 20/ in 

 vaseline oil), opportunately made, improve the general metabolism 

 and enrich the eggs with deutoplasmic material. 



2 nd In the ovary of normal rabbits two species of eggs exist, 

 one of an anabolic, type rich with Lecithine globules, the other of 

 a catabolic type, containing instead crystals of acid fat. 



3 rd The eggs of a catabolic type are more easily subject to 

 degeneration, the last stage of which is fatty degeneration. 



4 th The catabolic eggs at the beginning of the catabolic process 

 give males; w r hen the degeneration begins the eggs can still be fer- 

 tilized giving dead embryo of male sex. 



5 th The eggs rich with deutoplasmic globules of the anabolic 

 type give females, this is demonstrated from the fact that, after 



3) Russo. Sui prodotti del diverse tipo di metabolisms osservato nelle ova 

 della coniglia e sul loro valorc per il problemn della scssualita. Arch, di Fisiologia- 

 Firenze 1910. 



