FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   349   350   351   352   353   354   355   356   357   358   359   360   361   362   363   364   365   366   367   368   369   370   371   372   373  
374   375   376   377   378   379   380   381   382   383   384   385   386   387   388   389   390   391   392   393   394   395   396   397   398   >>   >|  
he transplanted egg was already full-grown and fertilized when the transfer was made, and that therefore no modification need be expected. If the egg were transferred at an earlier stage, it was thought, the result might be different. W. E. Castle and J. C. Phillips therefore undertook an experiment to which this objection should not be possible.[195] "A female albino guinea-pig just attaining sexual maturity was by an operation deprived of its ovaries, and instead of the removed ovaries there were introduced into her body the ovaries of a young black female guinea-pig, not yet sexually mature, aged about three weeks. The grafted animal was now mated with a male albino guinea-pig. From numerous experiments with albino guinea-pigs it may be stated emphatically that normal albinos mated together, without exception, produce only albino young, and the presumption is strong, therefore, that had this female not been operated on she would have done the same. She produced, however, by the albino male three litters of young, which together consisted of six individuals, all black. The first litter of young was produced about six months after the operation, the last about one year. The transplanted ovarian tissue must have remained in its new environment therefore from four to ten months before the eggs attained full growth and were discharged; ample time, it would seem, for the influence of a foreign body upon the inheritance to show itself were such influence possible." While such experiments must not be stretched too far, in application to the human species, they certainly offer striking evidence of the fact that the characters of any individual are mainly due to something in the germ-plasm, and that this germ-plasm is to a surprising degree independent of any outside influence, even such an intimate influence as that of the body of the mother in which it reaches maturity. APPENDIX B "DYNAMIC EVOLUTION" As C. L. Redfield has secured considerable publicity for his attempt to bolster up the Lamarckian theory, it deserves a few words of comment. His contention is that "the energy in animals, known as intelligence and physical strength, is identical with the energy known in mechanics, and is governed by the same laws." He therefore concludes that (1) an animal stores up energy in its body, in some undescribed and mystical way, and (2) that in some equally undescribed and mystical way it transmits this stored-up
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   349   350   351   352   353   354   355   356   357   358   359   360   361   362   363   364   365   366   367   368   369   370   371   372   373  
374   375   376   377   378   379   380   381   382   383   384   385   386   387   388   389   390   391   392   393   394   395   396   397   398   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
albino
 

influence

 
guinea
 

female

 

energy

 

ovaries

 
produced
 

operation

 
experiments
 
transplanted

animal

 

maturity

 

months

 

mystical

 

undescribed

 
species
 

inheritance

 

foreign

 

surprising

 

evidence


striking

 

discharged

 
growth
 

individual

 
stretched
 

characters

 
application
 

intelligence

 

physical

 
strength

identical
 

animals

 

contention

 

comment

 

mechanics

 

governed

 

equally

 

transmits

 

stored

 

stores


concludes

 

deserves

 

theory

 
APPENDIX
 
DYNAMIC
 

EVOLUTION

 

reaches

 

mother

 

independent

 
intimate