642 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



found in the various kinds of somatic cells. 1 Chondriosomes 

 have been demonstrated in every class of cell in which they 

 have been sought. 2 Though often difficult to demonstrate, 

 owing to their not being easily stainable by the methods 

 generally used, I have been able to find them in every kind of 

 cell, animal or vegetable, in which I have looked for them. 

 Here then are cytoplasmic structures which are handed on from 

 cell generation to cell generation, for which claims as the 

 transmitters of some of the hereditary characters may be made 

 as logical as are those made for the chromosomes. 



Enucleated eggs of one kind of animal have been fertilised 

 with the sperms of another kind and in spite of a total absence 

 of maternal chromatin and linin, the resulting embryos have 

 shown purely maternal characters. 3 When certain parts of the 

 cytoplasm of the ovum are removed before segmentation, it has 

 been shown that in the resulting larva certain parts of the body 

 are absent. 4 This is most significant, for it must be realised that 

 as all the cells constituting the fully developed organism arise 

 from the single cell — the ovum — if the destruction of a certain 

 portion of the cytoplasm of this cell result in the non-appear- 

 ance of a certain group of cells in the developed organism, the 

 power of producing the particular differentiation found in the 

 group of cells involved must have been latent in the cytoplasm 

 and not in the nucleus. 



1 Meves, F., 1908, op. cit. " Uber die Beteiligung der Plasochondrien 

 (Chondriosomes), an der Befruchtung des Eies von Ascaris megalocephala," 

 ArcJiiv fiir Mikro. Anat. Bd. 76, 191 1 ; "Meves and Duesberg, Die Sperma- 

 tozytenteilungen bei der Hornine," Arch. f. Mikro. Anat., Bd. 71, 1908 ; 

 Duesberg, op. cit., 1910, " Sur la continuite des elements mito chondriaux des 

 cellules sexuelles et des chondriosomes des cellules embryonnaires," Anat. Ann. 

 Bd. 35, 1910; Arnold, op. cit., 1912 ; "The Role of the Chondriosomes in the 

 cells of the guinea pig's pancreas." Archiv. fitr Zellforsch., 8 Band 2 Heft, 1912 ; 

 Firket, op. cit., 191 1. 



2 St. George, V. la Valette, " Spermatologische Beitriige," Arch. f. Mikro. 

 Anat. Bd. iii. 1886; Benda, C, Verh. d. phys. Ges. zu Berlin, 1896-7, 1898-9; Ver. d. 

 anat. Ges. Kiel, 1898 ; Hoven, H., Arch, de Biol., vol. xxv. 1910 ; Faure-Fremiet, 

 C. R. Soc. de Biol., 1909 ; Prenant, A., Journ. de I'Anat. et de la Phys., vol. xlvi., 

 1910, and many others. 



3 Godlewski, E., " Untersuchungen uber die Bastardieruns der Echniden und 

 Crinoidenfamilie," Archiv fur Entwicklungsmechanik, Bd. 20, 1906. 



4 Fischer, A., " Entwicklung und Organdifferenzieruns," Archiv fiir Ent- 

 wicklungsmechanik, Bd. 15, 1903; Wilson, E. B., "Experimental Studies on 

 Germinal Localisation," Journal of Experimental Zoology, vol. i. 1904 ; and 

 many others. 



