October 28, 1920] 



NATURE 



297 



Studies in Animal Inheritance. 



A' 



LL stutlcnis of inodcrn advancts in our know- 

 ledge of heredity are familiar with I'rof. VV. E. 

 Castle's experiments in modifying the hooded pattern 

 of piebald rats by continued selection. In a recent 

 Publication of trie Carnegie Institution, No. 288, 

 ■Studies of Heredity in Rabbits, Rats, and Mice," 

 Prof. Castle describes the results of crossing his 

 selected races with unmodified wild rats, in continua- 

 tion of his previous work, and announces the con- 

 clusion to which he has come. " The same wild race, 

 when its residual heredity is made fully effective by 

 repeated crosses, brings both the /i/us-selected and the 

 tHifiui-selected hooded lines to a phenotype of 

 common grade. This shows, contrary to my earlier 

 opinion, that what has really happiened in the case 

 of the selected races was more largely due to residual 

 heredity than to any change in the gene for the 

 hooded character itself." In this paper furtlier experi- 

 ments on the breeding of Engli.sh and Dutch white- 

 spotted rabbits are also described, the results of which 

 are generally comparable with those obtained from the 

 hooded rats. 



The magpie moth {Abraxas grossulariata) has been 

 a favourite subject for breeding experiments since 

 Doncaster's memorable demonstration of the sex- 

 linked inheritance of the lacticolor colour-aberration. 

 In a recent paper (Journal of Genetics, vol. viii.. 

 No. 4, 19 19) H. Onslow describes the result of cross- 

 ing with the type the variety lutea, in which the 

 ground-colour of the wings is yellow or orange instead 

 of creamy-white, the difference being due to a general 

 deepening of the pigment of the scales. The ttitea 

 ground-colour is incompletely dominant over that of 

 typical grossulariata, so that in the first hybrid genera- 

 tion the colours form a continuous scries from white to 

 <k-ep orange, and a plotting of the frequency distribu- 

 tion gives an approximately even "chance" curve. 

 " But the Fj generation, etc., are at once seen to give 

 curves having more than one maximum caused by the 

 t'ndency of the colour factors to segregate according 

 to the ordinary Mendelian l.iws." 



In the same number of the Journal of Genetics 

 Dr. J. W. W. Harrison continues his series of papers 

 on the hybrid Bistonine moths, dealing especially with 

 what he calls the "stimulus of heterozygosis." His 

 experimenis strongly confirm the general belief main- 

 tained by Darwin that "cross-fertilisation is a source 

 'if strength or of stimulus to metabolic activity "; for 

 he found that among the moths the inheritance of 

 which he studied " the hybrid larvse were not only 

 «mphatically more robust th.in those of the weaker 

 ()arcnt, but they also surpassed in strength and vit.ility 

 those of the stronger form." Hybrid caterpillars had 

 .-1 very low mortality rate, and they often completed 

 their transformations in an "amazinglv short period." 

 Besides discussing the possible intra-cellul.ir c.iuses of 

 these stimuli, Dr. Harrison points out how they may 

 iffect the results of breeding experiments on the size 

 in<l weight factors of surh animals as poultry or 

 ibbits. " Any attempted genetic analyses for size pur- 

 poses which fail to allow for hetcrozygotic impulses 

 ire vitiated and us<lcss." 



On the fascinating subject of sex-linked inheritance 

 some new light may come from an extension of Dr. 

 E. Hindle's records of the sexes of wries of families 

 of body-lice (I'ediculus hunianiis corporis) published in 

 the same numfier of the Journal of Genetics. Three 

 tvpes of family occur, all males, all femates, or mixed 

 iM which one sex or the other may predominate. The 

 iiithor believes that these results suggest the exist- 

 ■ I" ■ of two types of female and two types of male. 



NO. 2661, VOL. 106] 



The puzzling facts, first noted by Doncaster, respect- 

 ing coat-colour and sex-inheritance in cats receive 

 further attention and a suggested explanation in a 

 short paper by C. C. Little (t.c, pp. 279-90). 



G H. C. 



The Site of the University of London. 



WE note with pleasure the decision arrived at by 

 the Senate of the University of London regard- 

 ing the Government's offer of a site at Bloomsbury. 

 .\l the meeting of the Senate held on October 20 the 

 report of the Site and Accoinmotlation Committee 

 was adopted, as was also, after a long discussion, 

 the resolution of which we give the full text below. 

 The provisos attached to the acceptance of the offer 

 evince a capacity for keen bargaining and a business 

 mentality not conventionally associated with an 

 academic body. It is to be hoped that they will not 

 in the eves of the Government constitute an obstacle 

 to the completion of the matter, though it is obvious 

 that some of the, conditions will prove difficult in 

 practice. It would be a matter of keen regret if a 

 scheme which has advanced so far should come to 

 grief over any points of detail. 



The text of the resolution is as follows : 



"That his Majesty's Government be informed that 

 the Senate are prepared to accept the offer made in 

 Mr. Fisher's letter of .April 7, 1920, to the Chancellor 

 of the site therein described, gratis and in perpetuity, 

 on the terms as regards the maintenance, rates, etc., 

 of the Universitv headc,uarters buildings laid down 

 in the Treasurv Minutes of February 16 and July 13, 

 1899, and in Mr. Fisher's letters of June 26. Septem- 

 ber 24, and October 6, 1920, to the Vice-Chancellor, 

 provided : 



"ft) That such grant for maintenance, rates, etc., 

 shall not be counted as a portion of the grants made 

 to universities for educational purposes. 



"(2) That the allocation of the site between the 

 various buildings to be erected thereon shall be at the 

 sole discretion of the Senate of the University. 



"(3) That the University shall retain and King's 

 College shall retain full possession of their present 

 sites and buildings under the conditions under which 

 they now hold them until such time as the new^ build- 

 ings are ready for occupation and are free from 

 debt. 



"(4) That the buildings to be erected for the Uni- 

 versitv headquarters shall be,, as regards dimensions 

 and design, in accordance with nl.Tns to be agreed 

 upon between the Senate and his Majesty's Treasury, 

 and shall afford not less than to |x>r cent, more floor- 

 snace than is now allocated in the buildinirs at South 

 Kensington for the separate use of the I'niversity. 



"(5) That the terms of the remov.il of King's Col- 

 lege from the Strand to the Bloomsbury site shall be 

 a matter of subsequent negotiation betwcn his 

 Maiestv's Oovernment, the Council of Kinf''s College, 

 and the Senate of the I'niversity, and that an 

 agreement shall be concluded between the said 

 parties. 



"And that the .Senate, in accepting, suhiect to the 

 .^bove conditions, the Government's offer of n site in 

 Bloomsbury, assume that the offer does not incidentally 

 involve a oolicv of curtailing the develonmenf of the 

 work of those colleges and schools of the University 

 which are not now. nor in the future will be, situated 

 in the neighbourhood of the Bloomsbury site, and 

 that these institutions will not receive less favourable 

 consideration at the hands of the Government than 

 would otherwise have been llie case." 



