The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-01-20
WANTS MORE LIGHT.
Sex Development, Says Prof LIE Conte,
is Still q Mvstarv

- SS4AA q 4AySg0Iys
San Francisco, Jan. 2o.-Dr. Joseph LIE
Conte. the venerable chief of the depart
ment of natural sciences at the University
of California, is one of the most eminent
biologists, biologists and biologists of the
world.
He says: 1.-The influencing of the sex
of offspring is question involved in OBJ
security. That it can be influenced in
the lower orders of nature, such as cater
pillars and wasps. has been proved. In
wasps and bees the unfertilized eggs al
ways develop into males and the fertiI-
lied into females.
Among caterpillars Mrs. Treet has
shown that high feeding Will produce fe-
males, and that when food is more scarce
the young become males. This is to the
reverse of Schenk's theory This, how
ever, is a wise provision of nature for
the strains which fall upon the females
are far greater than those to which the
males are subjected, particularly in the
enormous production of eggs. Tadpoles,
which are vertebrates, usually develop
into male or female frogs. according as
the food is scant or abundant. In the
higher vertebrates less definite Informal
ton has been secured. There is a not
very credible tradition, as old as Aris-
totIe, that the pigeon lays two eggs. the
first female, the second male. 1t has been
asserted that among mammals early i'm
pregnation results in female offspring and
late impregnation in males. DR.. Schenk
may have made a great discovery, but a.
yet nothing definite has been stated about
his experiments. The whole matter is
covered with mystery, but the matter at
hand is too scant to tell whether DR..
Schenk has dispelIed it."
Washington, D. c.. Jan. 20.-Prof. Elmer
Gates says:
Prof. Schenk's discovery is one of sew
eral important steps in our knowledge of
the relation between nutrition and sex
genesis which will ultimately lead to the
practical control of sex among plants.
animals and human beings.
My own experiments lead me to con-
clude that the modification Of the meta
bolism of the cells of an organism by
means of a regulation of the psychologist
activities of these cells is the causative
factor in sex regulation, and that nutri-
ton is only one of many means by which
these mental activities of the cells can
be controlled. All organic functioning is
reducibIe to cellular activity, and I have
shown that cell functioning is the action
of the minds of those cells. Cells can
feel stimuli, and only mind can feel, hence
cells have minds. Now, I have elabor-
ately shown that the mentation of a cell
or of an animal can be modified by
changing environmentaI or bodily cOndi>
tfons and that each such change produces
cumulative change in the mentation OF
the organism. Foods are one of these
feasible conditions of body and environ
ment Likewise. I have shown that every
change in mental activity produces a
cumulative change in body and environ
ment, and that mentation is the causative
force in an organism, and that sex regu-
lation is to be sought through modifca>
ton of mental activity.
Il await DR.. Schenk's full technical re-
port before expressing my judgment, be-
cause he may have been wrongly report
ed, as I have recently been. 1 was re-
Gently made to say that 1 cure criminal
tendencies by the surgeons knife. But
never said so to anyone. My method is
wholly different from a surgical one"