APPLICATIONS OF RESULTS OF RESEARCHES. 



367 



from the fertilized egg. Moreover, the developing female 

 bee when fed on ordinary food becomes a common female 

 " worker," but when fed on royal food develops into a 

 queen. (See also pages 375 and 370.) 



The continuity of the building material between 

 parent and offspring is seen in its simplest manifesta- 

 tions in reproduction among protozoa by binary fission 

 and budding, by which the part separated from the 

 parent mass is in all essential respects like the parent, 

 having the same fundamental physico-chemical com- 

 position and constitution. That in such instances the 

 offspring should be a segmental counterpart of the parent 

 mass seems as obvious as that halves of a cube of su^ar 

 should be alike. Similarly, if we have in the ovule 

 and sperm forms of protoplasm which as stereoehemic 

 systems are in all fundamental respects counterparts of 

 those from which the parents were developed, it follows 

 that the offspring must under normal conditions in ac- 

 cordance with the laws of physical chemistry have the 

 same fundamental parental characteristics, as much so 

 as separated portions of any complex stereochemic sys- 

 tem must possess the properties of the initial mass. 

 Moreover, if the stereochemic systems of germplasms of 

 the female and male differ, as must be admitted, it 

 is manifest that the stereochemic system of the egg that 

 has been activated artificially or naturally, as the case 

 may be, must be different and hence undergo develop- 

 ment differences that will be obvious in the offspring. 

 In the first instance, the serial reactions which lead to 

 the formation of the different tissues, etc., are activated 

 by a mere disturbance of physico-chemical equilibrium, 

 which may be due to the conversion of a proenzyme into 

 enzyme or a prosecretin to a secretin, or in other words 

 of an inactive body into an active one. In the second 

 instance, there is not only activation, but the extremely 

 important addition of the male stereochemic system 

 which by admixture with the female system constitutes 

 a female-male system. Therefore, in the first place the 

 offspring is developed solely from the female stereo- 

 chemic system, and in the second place from the com- 

 bined female and male systems, one or the other of 

 which may be wholly or in part accountable in determin- 

 ing certain peculiarities in the developmental changes. 

 Moreover, owing to the transmutability of stereoisome- 

 rides and the multiphase transmutability of stereochemic 

 systems, coupled with the reversibility of metabolic 

 processes which may be due to even the simplest of 

 changes in physico-chemical mechanisms, we have a 

 logical basis for the explanation of the phenomena of 

 sexual dimorphism that is expressed in the so-called male 

 and female ova, and male and female spermatozoa; of 

 primary and secondary hermaphrodilism; of paradoxi- 

 cal sex developments where the unfertilized egg develops 

 into either male or female offspring ; and of sexual trans- 

 mutability of the inherently male or female ovule. 



It follows upon the basis of our theory that because 

 of the inherent peculiarities of the stereochemic systems 

 of the germplasms and the definitely predetermined 

 nature of the entire series of reactions in accordance with 

 the laws of physical chemistry that " like begets like " 

 because like every other physico-chemical phenomenon, 

 individual or serial, single or complex, under given condi- 

 tions, it is a physico-chemical fatality. 



PROTOPLASMIC STEKEOCHEMIC SYSTEM APPLIED TO 

 TUB EXPLANATION OF THE MECHANISM OF VARIA- 

 TIONS, SFOETS, FLUCTUATIONS, ETC. 



Among the most constant phenomena of living mat- 

 ter is inconstancy or variation. The fundamental 

 reasons for this peculiarity are to be found in the ex- 

 treme complexity, impressionability, and plasticity rf 

 the molecules of protoplasm in association with unceas- 

 ing and varying kinds and degrees of environmental 

 changes. Plasticity is a property that is doubtless com- 

 mon to every form of matter, the degree varying within 

 wide limits in different substances and under varying 

 conditions. Oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, sulphur, selen- 

 ium, phosphorus, arsenic, tin, iridium, palladium, and 

 other elements have long been known to be allotropic; 

 calcium nitrate and metaphosphate, ammonium nitrate 

 and fluosilicate, silver nitrate and iodide, calcium car- 

 bonate, silica, copper sulphate, iron sulphate, magne- 

 sium sulphate, mercuric chloride and iodide, zinc chlo- 

 ride, arsenious and antimonious oxides, potassium bi- 

 chromate and ammonium paratungstate, are only a few 

 of the simple inorganic compounds that have been found 

 to be dimorphous or polymorphous ; and the known 

 organic or carbon compounds that exist in multiple 

 forms are so numerous as to make an exceedingly large 

 list. In some instances the differences in form are said 

 to indicate merely differences in physical nature, there 

 being variations in color, hardness, density, melting- 

 point, crystalline form, etc., without change in chemical 

 properties; but in others the ditiVrciices are both physi- 

 cal and chemical and the latter may completely over- 

 shadow the former. Perhaps, there is no more remark- 

 able or suggestive instance of difference in properties 

 that is associated with differences in molecular form 

 than that of strychnine in ordinary and colloidal states, 

 the latter having only one-fourth the toxicity of the 

 former; and one wonders, apart from anything else, 

 what changes have occurred in the properties of the 

 various non-colloidal substances such as inorganic salts 

 when they have become an integral part of the molecule 

 of the most complex of all colloids protoplasm. Mure- 

 over, change from one state or phase into another is 

 usually brought about by very simple means, such as 

 mere solution, heat, sunlight, repeated recrystallization, 

 gelation, chemical reagents, etc. (See Publication No. 

 173, Introduction, page 9.) 



Water, while among the simplest substances of 

 nature, is endowed with most extraordinary properties, 

 especially in connection with living matter. It exhibits 

 a remarkable degree of plasticity in its molecular struc- 

 ture. The universal conception up to very recent years 

 that water is correctly represented by the symbol H.,0 

 has been shown to be untenable excepting under very 

 limiti'd conditions, and it seems clear that the molecule 

 must be looked upon as being in the form of a molecular 

 system that consists of H,0 (monohydrol), (H,0),, 

 (dihydrol), and (H.,0)., (trihydrol), which vary in pro- 

 portions in relation to temperature and pressure, rnd 

 which are readily convertible from one form into an- 

 other by changes in attendant conditions. It is assumed 

 that when polymerization occurs there takes place a 

 chemical combination of the simple molecules and that 

 with this combination changes occur in properties, such, 



