HEREDITY 



is indicated by the results obtained when germ- 

 cells are transplanted from one individual to 

 another. 



Heape showed some twenty years ago that 

 if the fertilized egg of a rabbit of one variety 

 (for example an angora, i. e. a long-haired, 

 white animal) be removed from the oviduct of 

 its mother previous to its attaclmient to the 

 uterine wall, and be then transferred to the 

 oviduct of a rabbit of a different variety (for 

 example a Belgian hare, which is short-haired 

 and gray), the egg will develop normally in 

 the strange body and will produce an individual 

 with all the characteristics of the real (an- 

 gora) mother unmodified by those of the foster 

 mother (the Belgian hare). Young thus ob- 

 tained by Heape were both long-haired and 

 albinos, like the angora mother. To this ex- 

 periment the objection might be offered that 

 the transplanted egg was already full-grown 

 and fertilized when the transfer was made, and 

 that therefore no modification need be expected, 

 but if the egg were transferred at an earlier 

 stage the result might have been different. In 

 answer to such a possible objection the foUow- 



30 



