254 president's address. — section d. 



M. E. Bataillon had made many experiments with frogs' eggs 

 on the lines of Loeb's well-known experiments with the eggs of 

 Echinoderms, using, with some success, various solutions and the 

 blood serum of mammals. He had also experimented with electrical 

 stimuli. His best results, however, were obtained by actually 

 puncturing the ovum. He took, with all needful precaution to preclude 

 the possibility of fertilization by wandering sperms, eggs of Rana 

 fusca from the body of the mother. Using all aseptic precautions, he 

 pricked each egg with a needle of glass or of platinum or other metaK 

 The result was remarkable. Seventy-five per cent, of the eggs operated 

 on went through the earlier stages of segmentation as if they had been 

 fertilized. At successive stages mortality became greater, but, out of 

 many hundreds, indeed, a dozen reached the early tadpole stage. 

 Three reached the stage of the metamorphosis, and of these one lived 

 to become an almost fully-developed frog, but died of misadventure — 

 an animal whose mother was a frog and whose father was a splinter of 

 glass {Comptes Retidus, 18th Apl„ 1910, 27th Mch., 1911). The 

 results achieved by Bataillon were confirmed by M. F. Henneguy 

 {Comptes Renins, 3rd April, 1911). 



Such experiments may be expected to be carried far enough to 

 throw great light on the value and method of Amphimixis, and to 

 suggest the part played by each parent in determining the inheritance 

 of the offspring. 



One of M. Bataillon's conclusions is thus stated : " L'impregnation 

 sans amphimixie n'est qu'un cas particulier du processus accelerateur 

 determine sur I'oeuf par I'introduction spontanee ou exp^rimentale 

 d'une cellule etrang^re. Dans la fecondation pure ou croiffee, 

 I'amphimixie est une condition speciale surajoutee a ce processus 

 general." 



Although I have referred to this most striking result of experiments 

 in artificial parthenogenesis, I do not intend to sum up the conclusions 

 to which such experiments and experiments of other kinds might lead, 

 as it seems to me impossible to do so with any advantage, seeing how 

 rapidly evidence is accumulating, evidence of a quite unexpected kind. 

 When surprises come upon us rather less thickly, we shall be in a better 

 position to decide as to what conclusions are possible. 



Inheritance of Acquired Characters. 



The question of the inheritance of characters acquired, of the 

 impressing on the offspring of a modification achieved by the parent 

 during the course of its development, is one of the most important in 

 the whole realm of science. The man to whom science is of no account 

 till it comes to be of monetary value may regard the question as an 

 abstract one merely, and one that does not concern him. But when 

 this question is one that can be definitely answered, it is probable that 



