No. 520] NOTES AND LITERATURE 



249 



white), showing clearly that the female subjected to lecithin 

 treatment yields a preponderance of females (with the maternal 

 somatic character of hair color). 



Occasionally the cross between a lecithin-fed Himalaya female 

 and a normal "Nero" male resulted in several modified Hima- 

 laya offspring (e. g., black legs or dusky coat, etc.) among the 

 preponderating Himalaya hybrids. This condition is readily 

 explained by assuming that in such crosses "the modification of 

 the vitellus had not reached the necessary stage to impress upon 

 the embryo the character of the maternal metabolism and with 

 it the characteristic female features" (p. 16). 



The cause of the concomitance of sex and particular somatic 

 characters is believed by Eusso "to depend upon a suitable modi- 

 fication of the germ-cell, related in some way to the age, the 

 physiologic state and other conditions of the particular indi- 

 vidual" (p. 98). 



The evidence here appears unequivocal that external condi- 

 tions (e. g., nutrition) can determine the kind of sex and 

 entirely vitiate the Mendelian scheme of ordinary crosses. Fe- 

 male sex and the maternal character of coat color moreover are 

 shown to be associated with a more highly nourished egg, the 

 artificially modified metabolism expressing itself in an abund- 

 ance of deutoplasmic and chromatic substances (chromidial-net) 

 in the zona pellucida and vitellus. The main stages in the chain 

 of causes culminating in female sex seems to be. (a) high nutri- 

 tion (lecithin), (o) increased size (preponderant anabolism). 

 (e) storage of chromatin, (d) femaleness. 6 



A brief paper by Miss Boring 7 gives the results of a careful 

 study of fertilized eggs of Ascaris with special reference to the 



males from eggs trom the right ovary; — namely, that the permanent 



ties obliquely directly in the inferior vena cava) may produce a con 

 on of relatively better nutrition. Cognizance must be taken of the 

 :, however, that the right ovary is frequently slightly larger than th< 



etiological investigation may reveal a better nourished condition ol 

 of the ova of the left ovary, expressed in the presence of chromida; 



r Boring, Alice M., "A Small Chromosome in Ascaris megalocephala,' 



