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



the injection of lecithine many eggs are rich with nutricious ma- 

 terial, and at the same time increase the births of female sex. 



6 th In the first confinement after the treatment with Lecithine 

 often, instead of an increase of the $g the cTcf increase, in this 

 case the increase of the 5$ will take place in the following con- 

 finement. 



7 th In general after the Lecithine treatment there is an increase 

 in the number of births. 



Regarding the criticism which Castle makes against me as to 

 the cases of deviation from Mendel's law of prevalence, I must 

 above all declare that my researches on this argument were made 

 with the scope of giving reasonable interpretation to this same 

 law. I wanted that is, to prove, if, by the production of the 

 young with a prevalent character, only the chromosomes would be 

 imputable or if it were not a question of general metabolism; that 

 such metabolism belongs to protoplasm or to elements which 

 figure in the nucleus, it does not matter for the demonstration 

 of the principle which moves my researches. 



Some cases in fact, contrary to the affirmation of Castle, cannot 

 be explained by the chromosomic theory or from omo et etero- 

 zigoti, as is demonstrated in a case referred to a hi ma lay an 

 female rabbit which was crossed for three generations with 

 the same black male and which should always have given young 

 of the same character, on the contrary, while in the first genera- 

 tion it gave young of a black character, in the second and 

 third generation, the female having been injected with 

 lecithine, gave birth to young of maternal character, and others 

 of a mixed character (paternal and maternal). Castle preoccu- 

 pied always with the idea of condemning my researches, gets out 

 of this, by supposing that the black male is eterozigo with regres- 

 sive character, white, black and mixed, which would explain the 

 birth of the young with such a character. But this should have 

 occurred from the first generation, as is known by the elements 

 which govern Mendel's laws and which Castle ought to know. 



In conclusion if Castle has no other argument to render more 

 consistent and less pettyfoggy his criticism, I must believe that my 

 researches are of some signification which Castle cannot or will 

 not understand, and that they open a new way in biological researches 

 as has already been declared by valient contemporary biologists. 



Verlag von Georg Thieme in Leipzig, Rabensteinplatz 2. Druck der k. bayer. 



Hof- und Univ.-Buchdr. von Junge & Sohn in Erlangcn. 



