Rabat d: Telegony 



397 



idea . pro]3oundcd by various writers 

 that albinism is an infectious disease. 

 According to this hypothesis, a wild- 

 gray female mated to a white male 

 might later produce albinos, even though 

 mated to another wild-gray male. The 

 females submitted to this test did not 

 at all confirm the proposition of the 

 hypothesis: the product of wild pairs 

 has been constantly and uniformly gray. 

 Thus all the experiments made w^th 

 various animals in the endeavor to find 

 effects of telegony under controlled 

 conditions have given results absolutely 

 contrary to that doctrine.^ 



WHAT REALLY HAPPENS. 



Really, should we be surprised? 

 Could we not think, a priori, that the 

 question was, in fact, poorly stated? 

 In reply, it is sufficient to try to find 

 some means by which such an impregna- 

 tion could take place. 



Various mechanisms have been suc- 

 cessively proposed. Some of these sug- 

 gestions have lost all value in the light 

 of present-day knowledge. The advance 

 of knowledge has thus disposed of the 

 idea of incomplete fertilization of mature 

 ova (proposed by Weismann) and of the 

 persistence of spermatozoa in some fold 

 of the reproductive passages (as Claude 

 Bernard suggested). 



Others seem unsatisfactory. Ro- 

 manes, for instance, thinks that the 

 sperm, after penetrating into the uterus, 

 is absorbed by the maternal organism 

 and exercises an influence on ova that 

 are not yet mature. But in truth it 

 does not seem that the protoplasm thus 

 absorbed can have any very different 

 effect from that produced by the absorp- 

 tion of any other substance whatever. 

 This protoplasm does not play the part 

 of a fecundating agent; it does not reach 

 the ovule until it has been very radically 

 changed by contact with the protoplasm 

 of the cell-tissues of the walls of the 

 uterus which absorb it and that through 

 which it must pass ; so that if any modi- 

 fication of the protoplasm of the im- 

 mature ova took place, it would be some 



modification of the same kind that re- 

 sults from the absor]:)tion of some com- 

 mon alimentary substance; the sperma- 

 tozoa could not produce, except under 

 highly improbable conditions, a modifica- 

 tion in the ovules, which would recall the 

 characteristics of the male in question. 



The only theory which rests to a cer- 

 tain extent on a solid foundation of fact 

 is the one proposed by W. Turner, 

 adopted by Corncvin, and by the latter 

 expressed as follows : 



"Would not the persistent influence 

 of a first reproductor result from the 

 fact that the mother herself had been 

 materially impregnated by something 

 belonging to the male, not by the direct 

 action of the sperm, but by the inter- 

 mediation of the fetus? Might it not 

 happen that the latter possessed in its 

 blood special properties belonging to its 

 father, and that when its blood was 

 exchanged with that of its mother, it 

 might act on the latter as vaccin acts 

 on the blood of a vaccinated subject? 

 The mother's blood, thus impregnated, 

 would act upon the ova which would 

 be later fecundated . by another repro- 

 ductor." 



THE EXCHANGE OF BLOOD. 



The existence of exchanges between 

 the blood of a mother and the blood of 

 her fetus can not be the object of any. 

 serious controversy. Not only is the 

 passage of toxins from the one to the 

 other indisputable, but it is also known 

 that a sort of equilibritim is established 

 between the constitutions of the two 

 serums. The experiment of Carlson 

 and Drennon (1911) confirmed by E. 

 Lafon (1913) is an irrefutable demon- 

 stration of this. These experimenters 

 removed the pancreas of a pregnant 

 bitch toward the end of her gestation; 

 no trace of sugar appeared in her urine 

 as long as fetuses remained in her uterus ; 

 but glycosuria became manifest im- 

 mediately after the expulsion of the last 

 of her pups ; the quantity of , sugar 

 changed from to 25 grams in the 

 course of 48 hours. 



'* For an illustrated account of the latest such experiment see "The Grevy Zebra as a Domestic 

 Animal," bv George M. Rommel: American Breeders Magazine, IV, 3,129, Washington, D. C., 

 July -September, 1913.— The Editor. : 



