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 
may designate Richard Roe by the for- 
B’ C 
maule (a+ raat pastwantwan 
D D’ E F 
Tian) tee Cy Toe a cor Tea ee 
x. x YY 
etc., aT 6 9) 5 +2.) xM. 
Formula of life. 
= etc., 
