312 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 766 



Strauglm and Walter Jones. Yeast contains 

 guanase but not adenase or xanthooxidase. 

 " Further Studies on the Use of the Fermen- 

 tation Tube in Intestinal Bacteriology," by 

 A. I. Kendall. Explanations of commonly 

 observed discrepancies in the study of intes- 

 tinal flora by means of the fermentation tube. 

 " The Metabolism of Man during the Work 

 of Typewriting," by Thorne M. Carpenter and 

 Francis G. Benedict. Estimations of oxygen 

 consumption, carbon dioxide exhalation and 

 heat production show that the energy trans- 

 formation during the work of typewriting is 

 less than that occurring in ordinary walking. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



A SUCCESSFUL OVARIAN TEANSPLANTATION IN THE 



GUINEA-PIG, AND ITS BEARING ON 



PROBLEMS OF GENETICS^ 



Transplantation of the ovary from one 

 animal to another has often been attempted, 

 and with varying degrees of success. The 

 object has usually been to observe the effects 

 of the transplantation upon the animal into 

 which the foreign ovary was introduced. 

 Recently, however, the experiment has been 

 repeated by students of genetics, to discover, 

 if possible, what the effect would be upon the 

 germ-cells, of a transfer from their normal 

 environment to the body of a different individ- 

 ual. The most noteworthy results thus far° 

 reported are those of Guthrie on hens, and of 

 Magnus' on rabbits. Each apparently work- 

 ing without knowledge of the other's work 

 has obtained what seems to be a modification 

 of the coloration of the offspring, due to in- 

 fluence exerted by the foster-mother upon 

 the germ-cells liberated within her body 

 from the introduced ovary. But in the 

 work of neither of these experimenters does 

 the nature of the result obtained preclude 

 the possibility that the ova liberated may 

 have come from regenerated ovarian tissue 



' Ckintributions from the Laboratory of Genetics, 

 Bussey Institution, Harvard University, No. 1. 



'Journal of Experimental Zoology, Vol. 5, p. 

 563, June, 1908. 



° Norsk magazin for IcEgevidenskaien, No. 9, 

 1907. 



of the mother herself rather than from 

 introduced ovarian tissue. The theoretical 

 importance of this point led us about a year 

 ago to plan experiments which should not be 

 open to the objection which we have stated. 

 We therefore undertook the transfer of ovar- 

 ian tissue from a Mendelian dominant to a 

 Mendelian recessive individual. For if in 

 such a case germ-cells were liberated which 

 bore the dominant character, we should know 

 that they could have come only from the in- 

 troduced tissue, since recessive individuals 

 are themselves incapable of liberating domi- 

 nant germ-cells. 



We are now able to report partial suc- 

 cess. The ovaries were removed from an 

 albino guinea-pig about five months old, and 

 in their stead were introduced the ovaries of 

 a black guinea-pig about one month old. The 

 albino upon which the operation had been 

 performed was then placed with an albino 

 male guinea-pig, and six months later bore 

 two black-pigmented young. 



In all recorded observations upon albino 

 guinea-pigs, of which we have ourselves made 

 many hundred, albinos when mated with each 

 other produce only albino young. Accordingly 

 there seems no room for doubt that in the 

 case described the black-pigmented young de- 

 rived their color, not from the albino which 

 bore them, but from the month-old black ani- 

 mal which furnished the undeveloped ovaries, 

 for transplantation into the albino. As re- 

 gards the important question whether, in such 

 an experiment as this, the germ-cells are modi- 

 fied in character by the changed environment 

 within which they are made to grow, our re- 

 sults are at variance with those of Guthrie and 

 Magnus. We can detect no modification. 

 The young are such as might have been pro- 

 duced by the black guinea-pig herself, had she 

 been allowed to grow to maturity and been 

 mated with the albino male used in the experi- 

 ment. 



We have now under observation about sev- 

 enty-five other guinea-pigs, as well as a number 

 of rabbits, upon which similar operations have 

 been performed. From some of these we hope 

 to obtain further results. 



