660 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1036 



female type and become to a striking degree 

 feminized-males, as shown in bodily form, in 

 a development of the mammary glands, in lac- 

 tation, and in. an alteration of psycho-sexual 

 characters. Furthermore, Riddle has found 

 that the ova of the pigeon are dimorphic, one 

 males and the other half females; that the 

 eggs having the male tendency have a higher 

 per cent, of water, a smaller size, and a lower 

 half having an inherent tendency to produce 

 males and the other half females; that the 

 eggs having the male tendency have a higher 

 per cent, of water, a smaller size, and a lower 

 per cent, of potential energy; and that the 

 " sex-foundation " of the germplasm is trans- 

 mutable, so that an egg that has inherently 

 the male tendency may become female, and 

 that such females exhibit secondary male 

 sexual characters. The transmutability of the 

 germplasm is comparable in its physico- 

 chemical mechanism to the reversion of the 

 maltose-dextrose-maltase reaction that is 

 caused by a change in concentration of the 

 solution, the dextrose being reverted into iso- 

 maltose and not to the antecedent maltose — 

 the male egg is not changed into a female egg, 

 but into a modified or feminized-male egg. 



In considering the transmissibility of par- 

 ental substances it is essential to distinguish 

 positively between the stereoisomerides and 

 intimately related bodies that are inherent 

 in the parent and those which are acquired 

 through infection or otherwise. Thus anti- 

 bodies that are acquired by the mother may 

 be without influence upon the ovary during 

 the formation of the germplasm and not even 

 become a constituent of the latter. On the 

 other hand, an immunity may be established 

 in the mother that may be conveyed to the 

 offspring, yet, curiously enough, such an immu- 

 nity may not be transmitted by the immunized 

 male. In processes of the production of the 

 germplasm the ovary may be as insensitive to 

 the presence of many acquired substances of 

 the blood as are some or all other organs, and 

 there is no more reason in general for expect- 

 ing the ovary and its product to be affected by 

 such bodies or conditions than there is for the 

 pancreas and the pancreatic juice or any other 

 secretory structure and its product to be 



affected. Every acquired substance must in its 

 relations to the ovaries be governed by the 

 same physico-chemical laws as determine spe- 

 cific selectivities or reactivities in connection 

 with the tissues generally. Hence, any such 

 substance may be reactive in relation to one 

 structure, but not to another. 



Plasticity as regards sex-determination has 

 been demonstrated in the studies of the devel- 

 opment of a male (drone) bee from the un- 

 fertilized egg, and of a female from the fertil- 

 ized egg. Moreover, the developing female 

 bee when fed on ordinary food becomes a com- 

 mon female " worker," but when fed on royal 

 food develops into a queen. 



The continuity of the huilding material 

 between parent and offspring is seen in its 

 simplest manifestations in reproduction among 

 protozoa by binary fission and budding, by 

 which the part separated from the parent mass 

 is in all essential respects like the parent, 

 having the same fundamental physico-chemical 

 composition and constitution. That in such 

 instances the offspring should be a segmental 

 counterpart of the parent mass seems as ob- 

 vious as that halves of a cube of sugar should 

 be alike. Similarly, if we have in the ovule 

 and si)emi forms of protoplasm which as stereo- 

 chemie systems are in all fundamental respects 

 counterparts of those from which the parents 

 were developed, it follows that the offspring 

 must under normal conditions in accordance 

 with the laws of physical chemistry have the 

 same fundamental parental characteristics, as 

 much so as separated portions of any complex 

 stereochemic system must possess the prop- 

 erties of the initial mass. Moreover, if the 

 stereochemic systems of germplasms of the 

 female and male differ, as must be admitted, it 

 is manifest that the stereochemic system of the 

 egg that has been activated artificially or 

 naturally, as the case may be, must be differ- 

 ent, and hence undergo development differ- 

 ences that will be obvious in the offspring. In 

 the first instance, the serial reactions which 

 lead to the formation of the different tissues, 

 etc., are activated by a mere disturbance of 

 physico-chemical equilibrium, which may be 

 due to the conversion of a proenzyme into 

 enzyme or a prosecretin to a secretin, or in 



