No. 542] 



NOTES AND LITERATURE 



117 



Bateson and Punnett 4 give the results of their study of the 

 inheritance of the peculiar black pigmentation in the skin, perios- 

 tium, and other tissues of the silky fowl. While some excep- 

 tions occur, the results on the whole are in agreement with the 

 assumption of a pigment factor, V, and an inhibiting factor I, 

 the latter exhibiting the phenomenon of spurious allelomorphism 

 with the female sex factor. The authors suggest that the excep- 

 tions found may be due to failure of the repulsion supposed to 

 exist normally between the female sex factor and the inhibiting 

 factor, I, 



"While a large part of the work on which Mendel's principles 

 of heredity depend has been done with pigments, very few in- 

 vestigations have been undertaken in order to determine the 

 connection between the phenomena of inheritance of these pig- 

 ments and the chemical reactions which underlie these phenom- 

 ena. This is quite natural, since few of those who have con- 

 ducted the investigations relating to Mendelian inheritance have 

 had the training, and hence the opportunity, to study the chem- 

 ical side of the question. Likewise, those relatively few individ- 

 uals who have become well versed in the highly complex and 

 difficult subject of physiological chemistry have seldom had any 

 direct interest in the phenomena of inheritance. The wisdom of 

 an endowment for an all-sided research of heredity such as the 

 Carnegie Institution of Washington has provided at Cold Spring 

 Harbor is manifest in the fact that Dr. Davenport has been able 

 to institute research on both sides of the question. The results 

 secured by Mr. Gortner in his study of the origin of melanin, 

 and its relation to the phenomena of Mendelian inheritance will 

 be eagerly read by students of Mendelism. In the May number 

 of the Journal of Biological Chemistry Mr. Gortner gives some 

 exceedingly interesting results of his work. He shows thai the 

 body filling of the meal worm (Tenebrio moliter) contains two 

 oxidases, a laccase-like enzyme, and a powerful tyrosinase. Also 

 that there is a chromogen present in the larva which, when acted 

 upon by the tyrosinase, gives a series of colors ending in a black 

 melanin-like body. Larva? killed by ether developed pigment 

 when left exposed to air, but when the air was excluded by car- 



