The San Francisco call., 1898-02-20

sex of offspring is determined by l the relative status of the two
 parents as regard nutrition. Should the proof be accepted, then one of the most puzzling and fascinating problems of the ages 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 falleo 10 stand the test of experiment. Half hundred explanations of the reason why child is born of particular sex are current In popular gossip, put no one of these has hitherto been ao- mitted to have a semblance or scleh- tific backing. Hence the interest which attaches to the claim or the German professor, whose stanolhs as a scientist removes his theory at once to a different plane from that of all previous ones.
 It is only In comparatively recent times, indeed, that any guess on the subject stood the slightest chance or nearing the truth, for until the mlcro- scope came to aid vision no one nao the remoteSt notion as to what really constitutes the process of generation,
 
 brought to light the interesting fact that in every process of generation there are two elements, and two only, involved One of these is round egg like cell called the oyum, or female ele- ment; the other an even smaller motile cell, called the sperm cell or male element. Observa- tion of many forms of life made clear the wonderful fact that these elemen- tary cells are marvelously similar in appearance among all forms Of living beings. The egg cell of a fish, rep tile. and a mammal, for example, are to all intents and purposes loentl- cal in appearance, and the sperm cell of the lower forms of aquatic plants is often almost indistinguishable from that of the highest mammal, being ln each case an infinitesimal moving creature looking for all the world like a miniature tadpole with an extra long tail And from the lowest to the highest forms of life, the real essence of generation is the union of a sperm cell with an egg cell; from such union, and not otherwise (except among cer- tain lower forms), results the new be- ing.
 When these elementary processes or generation were first discovered Scl- entists thought themselves closely on the track of the question Of sex, ana of all the other puzzles of hered1ty. In the case of fishes, frogs and other lower forms of life, the germ cell was ob served entering the egg-cell, fert1liza- tion resulting, and the observers not unnaturally jumped to the conclusion that the matter of sex might be de- termined by the number of germ cells that found their way into any part1c- ular egg-cell. If the number Sufficed to give preponderance to the male ele- ments, they reasoned, the offspring must be male, and vice versa. But this very satisfactory theoretical exclamation received it's quietus few years ago when Professor Hertwig demonstrated that fertilization is ef- fected always by the union of sin gle germ cell and no more with an egg-cell This being admitted soon af- ter by all observers, the sex question was returned to its former state of ob- scurity
 Meantime, however, very different set of observers had taken the ques- tion up, and brought it to what many of them believed to be satisfactory solution. These were the breeders of cattle on the great Western ranches. To these men the question of sex de- termination is one of utmost import ance, from a purely business stand point One breeder, for instance, has a herd of Jerseys, for dairy purposes. In6 Hldle Ol lllS ICIO dlC practically of no value to him, being too small to make good beef while fe- males are at premium. Just the re- verse is the case with neighboring breeder who raises beef for the East ern market and hence keeps cattle of a large f1esh-forming breed, the cows of which have little value as milkers.
 Various of these breeders discovered or thought they discovered some years ago that if the males of their herds were in particularly vigorous condition, while the cows were less vigorous, the offspring, on an average, showed pre- ponderance of females, while if the re- verse conditions prevailed male calves preponderated. So certain were they of this that many of them came habit ually to feed the bulls and cows of their herds in the particular way that would favor their ends, according to this the ory: and the claim was made that the results justified the experiment. These alleged facts were widely published, but they excited little comment among scientists because, from the nature of the case, the experiments were not per- formed with sufficiently rigid tests to satisfy the scientific mind. But now these allegations come at once to mind, because the alleged discovery of Pro- lessor Schenck to which the scientific world is forced to give attention, is practically rediscovery of the method long advocated by the Texas cattle breeders.
 It would certainly be curious if the solution of one of the greatest biologi- cal problems should have been reached first by frontier farmers of America; vet the experience would not be alto- gether unique, for it is we'll known that the dairymen of England had been aware of the preventive power of cow pox over smallpox many years before Edward Jenner put the matter to rigid