172 



Scientific Proceedings (60). 



white eyes, to a male with the normal sex-linked allelomorphs, viz., 

 gray body color and red eyes, but in addition the male carried a 

 recessive non-sex-linked character, viz., ebony body color. 



One gynandromorph appeared among many thousand off- 

 spring. It was male on one side (partially) and female on the 

 other. Both sides had red eyes and gray (or dark gray) body color. 

 An analysis of this case shows that the male side must have con- 

 tained the sex chromosome of its father and a non-ebony autosome 

 from the mother. In other words, the gynandromorph on the 

 male side is like the father except that it carries in addition one of 

 the autosomal characters of its mother. The result means that 

 at some early division a sex chromosome failed to pass to one 

 pole and became lost. 



Since this explanation will cover also the first two types, and 

 since neither the hypothesis for the first nor that for the second 

 type will explain all three types the third hypothesis is to be 

 preferred. It leads to the conclusion that gynandromorphs and 

 mosaics may arise through a mitotic dislocation of the sex chromo- 

 somes. 



106 (923) 



The applicability of Hermann's theory of alteration. 

 By R. Beutner. 



[From the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research.] 



1. Herrmann's theory of alteration, which is accepted to-day 

 by many physiologists, assumes that the junction of dead and of 

 living tissue is the seat of an electromotive force which acts in such 

 a direction that the dead tissue is negative while the living tissue 

 is positive. This theory was advanced by Herrmann against 

 DuBois Reymond who tried to explain the currents produced by 

 musclesand nerves by means of complicated structural assumptions. 

 Herrmann's theory has the advantage of expressing in an extremely 

 simple form a large number of physiological observations. It has 

 met general recognition partly also because all the opposing theories 

 were of a very unsatisfactory character. The arguments however 

 which Herrmann advances to supporthis views are not so conclusive 

 as to fully justify his views. Especially his observation that a 



