756 JOHN BEARD, 



Since the foregoing was written, Hacker i) has published further 

 studies upon the persistence (the autonomy, as he now would term it) 

 of the paternal and maternal nuclear elements. Without citing his 

 paper at length it may be noted, that he speaks of a possible com- 

 petition between the two halves and its importance for the question 

 of the nature of the prepotency of one parent. In embryological 

 lectures I have also pointed this out, and in conversation with other 

 zoologists. It had not been my intention to enter further into the 

 question at this juncture. What was written in the earlier part of 

 this section appeared to suffice for the present, and, perhaps, until 

 more light had been found. But science moves apace, and Hacker's 

 paper dispels further reserve. 



The conceptions of the writer concerning this matter are briefly 

 as follows. 



1) The union of the nuclei of the two gametes in fertilisation is 

 the joining of two individualities. In Hacker's terminology their 

 autonomy is retained along the germinal track and in the primary 

 germ-cells. 



2) In the primary germ-cell, which unfolds itself as an embryo, 

 this autonomy is shattered, with the resulting conquest of the 

 stronger, i. e. more potent portion. As each nucleus is made up of 

 a series of characters or qualities, this conquest may be on the part 

 of all those of one nuclear half, or of the greater or less number 

 than half of those of either portion. That is to say, the offspring 

 will reflect the sum-total of the half of all the characters of the two 

 lines, paternal and maternal, represented each by a unit in each of 

 the gametes. For clearness, if all the paternal characters contained 

 in the sperm, and, therefore, in the spermatic half of each nucleus 

 along the germinal track, be represented by a red pack of cards, 

 and if all the maternal characters of the egg be symbolised by a 

 blue pack of cards, the ofispring will be made up of characters, which 

 taken together make up a complete pack of cards, (not two such), 

 red or blue in any proportion. The duphcation in the nuclear 

 elements is equivalent to a doubling of all the characters 

 handed down along the two lines of the egg and sperm. 

 The "embryo" can only contain half of these characters. 



morphological meaning, or that commonly attached to them in daily 

 life becomes nonsensical, when applied to the facts of development. 



1) Häckek, v., Ueber die Autonomie der väterlichen und mütter- 

 lichen Kernsubstanz vom Ei bis zu den Fortpfianzungszellen, in : Anat. 

 Anz., V. 20, 1902, p. 440—452, 11 figs. 



