180 CHARLES L. PARMENTER 



Complexes of the second class. In fourteen cells of this class 

 there is one point in one chromosome and in four cells there is 

 one point in each of two chromosomes which, to persons hyper- 

 critically inclined, might possibly appear uncertain. To one 

 acquainted with the material, each of these points is entirely 

 clear, and even when accepted as subject to interpretation it is 

 very plain how the interpretation should be made — so plain that 

 I am certain that the count of twenty-eight chromosomes is 

 accurate and dependable. But for the sake of unquestionable 

 fairness I have placed these cells in a separate group. As to 

 the exact nature of the interpretations in these eighteen com- 

 plexes, four of them have some small portion of only one chro- 

 mosome so covered by others that it cannot be traced over its 

 entire length without losing sight of it as stated above (p. 178). 

 Two other cells had two chromosomes of this nature. Five 

 complexes have a single chromosome lying in such a relation to 

 another chromosome that it might possibly be interpreted as a 

 part of the other chromosome (e.g., fig. 23, chromosome ?'), and 

 in three more cells there were two such chromosomes. In the 

 remaining five complexes a single chromosome was so situated 

 or otherwise involved, that it might be interpreted that there 

 were two chromosomes present (e.g., fig. 21, i). 



In considering all the interpretation possible in each of these 

 eighteen cells the minimum number in any one of them would 

 be twenty-seven and the maximum number thirty. Even grant- 

 ing this much variation, it is far removed from that expected in 

 a series of chance variants as Delia Valle claims them to be. 



The points in question were sketched as described above 

 before the chromosomes were counted, so that the determination 

 of the number of chromosomes was not influenced, either con- 

 sciously or unconsciously, by a knowledge of how many chromo- 

 somes were present or by how they should be sketched in order 

 to produce the expected number. This procedure and the fact 

 that the number counted always agreed with the number present 

 in the forty-five cells of class I make it practically certain that 

 the enumeration is correct. It should be emphasized again that 

 these cases are onlj"- subject to question when hj^ercritically 



