GENERAL CHARACTERS OF LIVING ORGANISMS 37 



sentative proteins in the germ cells. Guyer^ has recently 

 found that the germ cells of rabbits which have been 

 injected with anti-lens serum (formed by immunization 

 in fowls injected with crushed rabbit lenses) are so 

 modified as to give rise in development to rabbits 

 having defective lenses and otherwise abnormal eyes. 

 These defects are transmitted hereditarily by either ova 

 or spermatozoa through several generations. Since 

 anti-bodies attach themselves to proteins of correspond- 

 ing configuration, these observations are evidence of the 

 presence of the specific lens proteins (or proteins 

 closely corresponding) in the germ cells. Results of an 

 analogous kind recently reported by Detlefsen and 

 Griffith may possibly have a similar significance; rats 

 which had been subjected to prolonged rotation gave 

 rise to oft'spring showing characteristic defects in equi- 

 librium and tendency to circus-movements, and those 

 abnormalities were also heritable.^ 



While it is difficult to believe that all, or even more 

 than a very few, of the proteins in the adult body are 

 represented by corresponding proteins in the germ, yet 

 it seems not improbable that there may exist some 

 correspondence of a general kind between the chemical 

 organizations of adult and germ, analogous to or parallel- 

 ing the general morphological correspondence which 

 Conklin's work^ has demonstrated between the eggs 



^ Guyer and Smith, Journal of Experimental Zoology, XXVI (1918), 

 65, and XXXI (1920), 171. Cf. also American Naturalist, LV (192 1), 

 97, and LVI (1922), 80. 



2 Cf. Griffith, Science, LVI (1922), 676. 



3 Cf . Conklin, Heredity and Environment in the Development of 

 Man, Princeton University Press (1918); also his paper, "The Share 

 of Egg and Sperm in Heredity," Proceedings of the National Academy of 

 Science, HI (191 7), loi. 



