388 



The Journal of Heredity 



is that activity by which the cell takes 

 into itself nutriment from the sur- 

 rounding medium (as in the case of 

 the amoeba living in the sea water), 

 and stores this food as potential 

 energy. The formative process is com- 

 monly called cell division. It is the 

 process by which organisms grow, and 

 it is with this matter of growth that 

 we shall have most to deal in this con- 

 nection. The functional process — 

 which does not especially concern us 

 now — is the part of all life that is de- 

 voted to some specific activity, such as 

 the contraction of a muscle cell, the 

 secretion of a gland cell, the impulse 

 transmission by a nerve cell or the sim- 

 ple locomotive movements of an 

 amoeba. 



Thus, like all living creatures, the 

 cells which make up the body engage in 

 three principal activities : feeding or 

 absorbing energy, growing or reproduc- 

 ing, and functioning or performing 

 some special act or labor in which the 

 stored energies are consumed. It 

 would seem a platitude to say that if a 

 human being is fed on bad food he will 

 sicken and will be able neither to grow 

 nor to work, but it is stating a fact as 

 yet not generally recognized to apply 

 this bit of common sense to the cells of 

 which that human being is made. Par- 

 ticularly does it seem almost startling 

 to apply it to the cells of the unborn 

 child. 



Just here lies the core of our prob- 

 lem. The ff)rmative process of the 

 cells in the human embryt) is dependent 

 upon a chemically normal medium — a 

 healthy blood condition in the mother. 

 Expressed in the simplest terms, this 

 process must have a well balanced 

 ration of fo(xl peculiar to it. If this 

 condition prevails, and there has been 

 no serious involvement of the germ 

 plasm, the various groups of cells in 

 the foetus will develop normally and 

 we shall have — other troubles not in- 

 tervening — a healthy child. We know, 

 however, that toxins of all sorts act 

 selectively on special cell groups, in- 

 hibiting or exaggerating their growth. 

 'J'hus the presence in the mother of any 



kind of extrinsic or intrinsic poisons 

 may cause the development of mon- 

 sters. The same rule is now known to 

 ai)plv in any case where the chemical 

 medium on which the growing cell 

 feeds is seriouslv disturbed by abnor- 

 mal functioning of the internal secre- 

 torv glands. 



A parallel is to be found in primitive 

 marine life. Not only are the simple 

 organisms that float in the littoral 

 waters of the sea killed or injured 

 by the presence of hostile chemicals, 

 but also by variations in the salt con- 

 tent or the temperature of the brine. 

 The medium upon which the human 

 embryonic cell feeds and in which it 

 lives is preciselv comoarable to the 

 amoeba's sea water. If the endocrine 

 balance of the mother becomes dis- 

 turbed from anv cause, such as worry, 

 strain, emotional shocks, grief, fright, 

 constant excitement and the like, dur- 

 ing the course of the gestation period, 

 there is the gravest likelihood that the 

 chemical balance of her blood will be 

 deranged, that certain cells which live 

 in it and feed on it will grow abnor- 

 mally or refuse to grow at all. and that 

 another defective will be born. 



Typical Cases 



Case 1. A family of Italian i)eas- 

 ants was attracted to America because 

 one of the neighbors had returned to 

 the home village in what seemed a 

 golden prosperity. This man had gone 

 to America ten years before and, after 

 the usual struggles and defeats, had 

 ])rospered in a small way. In his new 

 felicity he forgot his early trials and 

 told only of triumphs. The peasant 

 family sold what it owned, hopefully 

 ]jacked a few belongings and set out 

 from that peaceful, normal environ- 

 ment in which the stock had grown 

 from the time of the Caesars, to stake 

 its small strength against the industrial 

 giant, yawning across the sea. Of 

 these wayfarers there were only three, 

 the parents and one daughter, a happy 

 and normal child. ( See Frontispiece. ) 



These strangers settled in Xew 

 York. Their poverty was pitiful ; their 



