464 WM. E. KELLICOTT 



in that whole complex mechanism which as an entire system 

 epigenetically gives rise to such substances or rudiments. It is 

 quite likely that, in part at least, these altered reactions are such 

 as may lead to disturbances of the mitotic processes of matura- 

 tion and fertilization, such as were described in such great 

 variety in Ascaris by Sala ('95) or of nuclear division during 

 cleavage, as described by Conklin ('12) in Crepidula, whereby 

 abnormal nuclear structures may be formed. It is also not 

 unhkely that the observed failure ta form cell-walls in many 

 parts of the cytoplasm, or the abnormal location of cell-walls 

 when formed, may open the way to the possibility of abnormal 

 nuclear and cytoplasmic associations. Another possibility lies 

 in the physical slowing of the translocatory movements of the 

 gradually differentiating cytoplasmic materials. In eggs sub- 

 jected to cold immediately after fertilization the normal flow- 

 ing together of the cytoplasm to form the germ-disc and the sub- 

 sequent rearrangement and redistribution of different cyto- 

 plasmic substances, often appear superficially to be seriously 

 interrupted. But all such conditions are themselves to be re- 

 garded as consequences of antecedent modifications of some 

 more elementary chemical or physical organizational processes 

 as yet beyond analysis and description. 



The great variety in the results following treatment is just 

 what would be expected on the basis of such a disorganizational 

 effect. Both nuclear and cytoplasmic materials are themselves 

 so complex, and the complete system of relations, both ma- 

 terial and energetic, between them and among the various 

 component parts of each, which as a whole we term the 'organ- 

 ization' of the ovum, is so extremely complicated, that it affords 

 almost unhmited possibilities for modification and disturbance. 

 Without knowing very much more than we do about the physics 

 and chemistry of this organization and about its regulatory 

 capacity, it would seem largely or wholly a matter of chance, 

 what would be the precise later results of any single modifica- 

 tion or simple group of disturbances in this system. The results 

 of such disturbance are entirely unpredictable in individual 

 instances at present. 



