May 19, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



789 



When, however, a spermatozoan enters the 

 egg through the micropyle this micropyle 

 should, by analogy with the observed condi- 

 tions in various other insect eggs, become 

 closed, thus preventing poly-fertilization. If 

 this is so then a double mating should after all 

 result in but a single fertilization, and these 

 fertilizations should be roughly divided be- 

 tween the two male types. 



Thus in double mating a female Bagdad 

 White with Bagdad White and Istrian Yellow 

 males, the fertilizations should be, roughly, 

 equally divided between pure race Bagdad 

 White and crossed Bagdad and Istrian Tel- 

 low. And in accordance with these fertiliza- 

 tions half of the Fj generations thus produced 

 should be white cocooning and half yellow 

 cocooning (yellow being dominant in cross- 

 ings with white). If an Istrian Yellow 

 female is mated with both Istrian Yel- 

 low and Bagdad White males Fi genera- 

 tions should always be composed of all yellow 

 cocooning individuals. Or if in these double 

 matings all of the fertilizations are effected 

 by spermatozoa of one of the males only 

 then the F, lots should be either all white 

 cocooning or all yellow cocooning. F, genera- 

 tions from these lots should follow the Men- 

 delian order and break when the Fj individ- 

 uals are hybrids and not break when they are 

 pure race progeny. 



But the data given above do not reveal the 

 expected behavior. They evidence a consid- 

 erable perturbation in the order of inheritance. 

 The Fj lots are not always all white or all yel- 

 low, or equally divided between white and 

 yellow as they seemingly should be. Or if 

 such all white or all yellow F, lots are pro- 

 duced, they often throw both yellows and 

 whites in F, lots when only yellows or only 

 whites should have appeared. Or if they do 

 produce all white or all yellow F, lots inter- 

 mating in these lots may produce both yel- 

 lows and whites in F^ lots. In a word the in- 

 heritance behavior is not that which it should 

 be in animals usually following a Mendelian 

 order, if the only influence at work on the egg 

 is the nuclear content of a single pure race 

 spermatozoan. 



What, then, is causing this pertubation in 

 the order of inheritance? Do the eggs in 

 double-mated females receive more than one 

 spermatozoan and are these spermatozoa often 

 the representatives of both the races used in 

 the double mating? Or can the egg be in any 

 way influenced by the mere presence in the 

 spermatheca of spermatozoa representing both 

 of a pair of allelomorphic heritable charac- 

 ters? Can fluids carrying the spermatozoa 

 have any influence during fertilization? Can 

 the spermatozoa of one type influence those of 

 the other type during their enforced com- 

 panionship for several hours or days in the fe- 

 male spermatheca? 



All that we think we know of the mechan- 

 ism of fertilization and heredity makes us 

 answer " No " to each of these questions. 

 Then why should the order of inheritance in 

 the silkworm moth be different in the genera- 

 tions after these double matings from the 

 order in the generations following a single 

 mating? 



Vernon L. Kellogg 



Stanford University, Cal. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



At the stated meeting of the academy on April 

 18-20, the following papers were read: 



' ' On the Motions of the Brighter Helium 

 Stars," W. W. Campbell. 



' ' Report of Progress in Spectrographic Deter- 

 minations of Stellar Motions," W. W. Campbell. 



' ' The Evolution of Periodic Solutions of the 

 Problem of Three Bodies," F. R. Moulton. 



"Mechanical Quadratures," G. P. Becker. 



' ' Corollaries of the Theory of Isostasy, " W. M. 

 Davis. 



' ' Experimental Investigation on Reflection of 

 Jbight at Certain Metal-liquid Surfaces," Lynde 

 P. Wheeler (introduced by C. H. Hastings). 



' ' On the Origin of the Peaks of Maximum Pres- 

 sure in the Midst of the Permanent Tropical 

 Oceanic Highs," W. J. Humphreys (introduced 

 by Cleveland Abbe). 



' ' A Further Study of Columbic and Tantallic 

 Oxides," E. P. Smith. 



' ' The Outlook of Petrology, "J. P. Iddings. 



' ' The Orogenic Development of the Northern 

 Sierra Nevada, ' ' Waldemar Lindgren. 



