The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-02-20
DETERMINATION OF SEX.
Has Prof. Schenck Of Vienna Solved the Great Secret of
Reproduction?

Professor Schenck of Vienna thinks
he has proved that the sex OF offspring
is determined by the relative status of
the two parents as regards nutrition.
Should the proof be accepted, then one
of the most puzzling and fascinating
problems of the age has been solved.
But it should not be forgotten that it
is a problem that has been solved" a
vast number of times before, and that
all these solutions have failed to stand
the test Of experiment. Half hundred
explanations of the reason why a child
is born of a particular sex are current
in popular gossip. but no one of these
has hitherto been admitted to have a
semblance of scientific backing. Hence
the interest which attaches to the claim
of the German professor, whose stand
ing as a scientist removes his theory
at once to a different plane from that
of all previous ones.
EVIDENCE OF THE MICROSCOPE.
It is only in comparatively recent
times, indeed, that any guess on the
subject stood the slightest chance of
nearing the truth. for until the micro
scope came to aid vision no one had thc
remotest notion as to what really con-
stitutes the process Of generation which
lies back of sex. The microscope brought
to light the interesting fact that in
every process of generation there are
two elements, and two only, involved.
One OF these is a round. egg-!ike cell
called the ovum. or female element; the
other an even smaller mOtile cell,
called the sperm cell. or male clement.
Observation of many forms of life made
clear the wonderful fact that these eie-
mentary cells are marvelously similar
in appearance among all forms of liv
ing beings. The egg cell of a fish. a
reptile and a mammal for example,
are to all intents and purposes identi-
cal in appearance, and the sperm cell
of the lower forms of aquatic plants is
often almost indistinguisEable from
that of the highest mammal, being in
each case an infinitesimal moving crea-
ture, looking for all the world like
miniature tadpole with an extra long
tail And from the lowest to the high
est forms of life, the real essence Of
generation is the union of sperm cell
with an egg cell; from such union, and
not otherwise Except among certain
lower forms) results the new being.
When these elementary process of
generation were first discovered sci
entists thought themselves closely on
the track of the question of sex. ard of
all the other puzzles of heredity. In
the case OF fishes. frogs and other lower
forms of life. the germ-cell was OBJ
served entering the egg-cell, fertiliza-
ton resulting. and the observers not
unnaturally jumped TO the conclusion
that the matter Of sex might be deter
mined by the number sufIiced 10 give
preponderence to the male elements,
they reasoned. the offspring must be Il
male. and vice versa But this very
satisfactory theoretical explanation re-
ceived it's quietus a few years ago when
Professor Hertwig demonstrated that
fertilization is effected always by h
union of a single germ cell and no more
with an egg cell. This being admitted
soon after by all observers, the SIX
question was returned 10 its former
state of obscunty.