THE HEREDITY OF RICHARD ROE. 



137 



males; starvation of the mother makes the young male. 

 It may be so with the human race. In accordance with 

 certain known facts and certain plausible theories, Dr. 

 Schenck, of Vienna, has formulated certain rules for the 

 control of sex in offspring. Among other things a 

 proteid or " training-table " diet before and through the 

 critical period of early pregnancy should increase the 

 probability of male offspring ; a fat-producing diet 

 should tend to insure a daughter. Other suggestions 

 have been made which need not be discussed here. In 

 general, we may say that the determination at will of 

 sex in offspring is not theoretically impossible. The 

 elements involved are too obscure and complex for 

 certainty to be probable. It is, moreover, an open 

 question whether the general diffusion of such power 

 would be a boon to mankind. 



In any event, Richard Roe became male. Whether 

 through the lean diet of his mother or the late union of 

 his parent germ cells, or through some hidden cause or 

 impulse need not concern us now. The fact of mascu- 

 linity becomes more and more dominant as his growth 

 goes on. At last it affects all his activities, modifies all 

 his structures, and permeates every fiber of his being. 

 Then is Richard Roe a man, and our formula of his pos- 

 sibilities is multiplied or modified by an overshadowing 

 M. (male). But his hereditary characters are arranged 

 and assigned before the question of his sex is deter- 

 mined by Nature. Thus at birth we 

 Formula of life. , -r,- 1 j -r. i i t 



may designate Richard Roe by the for- 



+ + + ctc " 



+ 64 n' + 64 *" etC '' + 256 if et -' + 1024 n" 



+ H + f-$-5 +Z -' XM ' 



