104 



agar, or starch solution. Boveri in the year of 1888 had said 

 "The splitting of the chromosomes appears to be a vital man- 

 ifestation; an act of reproduction on the part af the chromo- 

 somes." And every authoritative cytologist since has said that 

 they divide and reproduce by fission, making two from one. 

 But some of these have thought that they sometimes arise 

 anew from simple cytoplasm, because they have not found them 

 under certain conditions i-n some cells. 



McClung, Wilson, Miss Foote and Miss Stevens have found 

 that sex is determined by the odd or even number of these 

 chromosomes ; and all the direct breeding experiments of arti- 

 ficial mutability o^f individuals have led to this idea of their 

 bacterial semblance. 



When we consider the embryo's development from a 

 fused germ cell, and the many different chemical forms 

 of hoof, hair, pigment, bone, and glandular cells, we must surely 

 ask if there is not something inside these particular cells that 

 works a chemical change, or metabolism, on the homogeneity 

 of the common lymph and common sap. 



We were ready to spring this theory of "the bacterial sem- 

 blance of the chromosomes" a year ago, but some cytologist 

 said these chromosomes at times lose their identity. Further 

 work in complicated hybrids of contrasted breeds, enabled us 

 to nearly count these chromosomes by the non-correlation 

 of distinct and heritable units. We searched volumes on chem- 

 istry for a perpetuating chemical enzyme. Platinum finely di- 

 vided and some sulphates would work catalytic change on lymph, 

 sap, or starch solution, but would not reproduce. 



There is but one reproclucablc catalyser yet known, the 

 hated bacteria. So by the logic of simple elimination we at- 

 tribute to bacteria the building of plant and animal cells from 

 the undiferentiated lymph or sap that filters thru the cell w^all 

 into the cell. First the lymph exists as cytoplasm. Then after 

 metabolism by bacterial chromosomes it becomes pigment, bone, 

 hoof, or epithelium. Since this theory was given at Omaha, 

 we have found much further confirmation, and we are receiv- 

 ing support from able men. 



