THE CYTOLOGICAL PROBLEMS ARISING 

 FROM THE STUDY OF ARTIFICIAL 

 PARTHENOGENESIS 



D. WARD CUTLER, M.A. (Cantab.) 



Introduction. — Early in the present century biologists became 

 acquainted with the work of Loeb and others, showing that, 

 without the intervention of the spermatozoa, the eggs of many 

 animals could be treated and made to develop ; though without 

 such treatment they would undergo no further development. 



As is usually the case, these results were unknown to the 

 general public until the press gave a more or less accurate 

 account of how Bataillon had caused frogs' eggs to develop 

 simply by pricking them with a red-hot needle. This remark- 

 able fact fired the imagining of the more enterprising newspaper 

 writers, who at once speculated as to what would occur when 

 this, or similar methods, were applied to the higher animals — 

 even man himself. The feminist movement was reaching its 

 height at this time, and, as can be easily imagined, artificial 

 parthenogenesis, as the phenomenon was termed, for a short 

 time was keenly discussed. 



Natural parthenogenesis, or the development of an egg not 

 fertilised by the male element, is, of course, a well-known phe- 

 nomenon in the animal kingdom, though, with a few exceptions, 

 confined to one big group — the Arthropoda — to which belong 

 the insects and Crustacea. 



The present discussion, however, will be confined to artificial 

 parthenogenesis, though certain aspects of natural partheno- 

 genesis 1 will have to be considered, in order to elucidate much 

 which follows. 



As I have just stated, artificial parthenogenesis did not 

 receive much attention at the hands of biologists until the 

 beginning of the present century, but as early as 1 847 Boursier 

 stated that a virgin silkworm placed in sunlight and then in 

 shade produced eggs from which caterpillars had developed. 

 Tichomoroff in 1886 obtained similar results by rubbing the 

 eggs between two pieces of cloth, and in 1902 by using con- 

 centrated sulphuric acid as stimulating agent. These experi- 



1 For a full discussion see Cutler, D. W., Memoirs Lit. and Phil. Soc, 

 Manchester, 63, 191 7. 



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