LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LOXDOX. 



13 



Prof. Ethelbert Blatter, S.J., Mr. Jal Phirozshah Mullan, M.A., 

 F.E.S., Mr. Cyril West, B.Sc. (Lond.), A.E.C.S., and Mr. Eobert 

 "Whymper, were elected Fellows. 



The President announced that the nest General Meeting of the 

 Society on the 3rd April would be made Special, in order to con- 

 sider the following motions : — 



1. Tliat the Wallichian Herbarium and later additions from 



Dr. Horsfield and others be offered to the Eoyal Botanic 

 Gardens, Kew. 



2. That certain papers relating to the Cniversity of Uppsala 



be presented to that University. 



A discussion on " The Development and Inheritance of Sexual 

 Characters " was opened by Mr. Geoffeet Smith, M.A., F.L.S., 

 the following being an abstract of his remarks : — 



Secondary sexual characters may be divided into two classes, 



(1) those which are correlated in their development with the 

 primary sexual organ, ovary or testis, and (2) those which are not 

 thus correlated, but which develop independently of the presence 

 of the gonad. 



Corresponding to these two classes we find that abnormal 

 secondaiy sexual characters may arise in an individual in two 

 ways — (1) by differential correlation, where abnormality of the 

 gonad causes abnormality in certain secondary sexual characters, 



(2) by liereditani transference, where certain secondary characters 

 are transferred in inheritance from one sex to the other without 

 the primary sexual organs beiug in the least affected. 



In dealing with the first class of cases, the most commonlv 

 accepted view as to the mechanism by which the correlation 

 between gonad and secondary sexual characters is brought about, 

 is embodied in the hormone theonj, according to which the gonad 

 produces a specific hormone which stimulates the development of 

 certain characters. Objections will be raised to this theorv in its 

 simple form, chiefly oA^ug to certain phenomena occurring in 

 Parasitic Castration, and an alternative theory of inetaholic stimula- 

 tion is proposed, according to Avhich the gonad by feeding on 

 certain specific substances in the blood, stimulates the over- 

 production of these substances by the metabolic organs, and so 

 brings about changes in the composition of the blood which act as 

 a stimulus on the secondary sexual characters. In the case of the 

 female organism evidence is produced to show that these substances 

 are of a fatty nature. 



The last topic of discussion is the factorial composition of the 

 individual in respect of the sexual characters, and the question of 

 the determination of sex. 



Evidence is forthcoming chiefly from two sources, breeding and 



