The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-02-20

case with a neighbOring breeder. who
raises beef for the eastern market. and
hence keeps cattle of a large flesh
forming breed, the COWS of which have
little value as mixers.
Various of these breeders discovered,
or thought they discovered. some years
ago. that if the males of their herds
while the cows were less vigorous, the
offspring, on an average, showed a pre-
pCHOerance OF IemaleS, while II the re-
verse condition prevailed. male calves
prepOnderated. So certain were they OF
this that many of them came habitually
to feed the bulls and COWS of their
herds in the particular way that would
favor their ends, according to this
theory: and the claim was made that
the results justified the experiment
These alleged facts We're widely pub
lished. but they excited little comment
among scientists because. from tn na-
ture Of the case, the experiments were
not performed with sufficiently rigid
tests 10 satisfy the scientific mind. But
now these allegations come at once 10
mind. because the alleged discovery of
Professor Schencl1, to which the scien-
title world is forced 10 give attention,
is practically a re-discOvery of the
method long advocated by the Texan
cattle breeders.
1t would certainly be curious if the
solution Of one Of the greatest of bio
logical problems should have been
reached first by frontier farmers of
America, yet the experience would not
be altogether unique. for il is well
known that the dairymen of England
had been aware of the preventive power
of cOwpcX over smallpox many years
before Edward Jenner put the matter
to rigid tests and demonstrated the
truth Of their rumOred opinions. In
deed, such a sub-stratum of rumOred
knowledge may be found beneath many
great discoveries. And in this particu-
lar case it is not alone the cattle breed
erS. but large number of physicians
everywhere who have held, as 4 provis-
iOnal belief, a theory of sex which is
practically formulated definitely by
Professor Schenck. There is at least
one New York physician. for example,
who has long been accustomed 70 point
out the fact that among families CT his
acquaintance male offspring DrOpOnder-
ate where the mother nOticeabIy eG-
ceeds the father in physical vigOr or
vitality; girl children where the father
is prOnouncedly the more vigorous. He
has shown. further. that in a family
where boys have been the sole Off
spring a girl may be born during
period when the father had suffered
from a Ions continued depression OF
health. He has even claimed TO have
some success in predicting the sex of
unborn children by applying this test.
But as he had made no detailed pub
LEGATION of his observations. his theory
takes nothing from the precedence of
Professor Schenck. 1t does. however,
tend to strengthen the confidence in the
Germans alleged discovery. that other
Independent observers had reached
somewhat similar conclusions.
BASIS OF REPRODUCTION.
But there is another and much
stronger reason for supposing that the
new claims may have some validity,
and that is the biological fact that nu-
triton IS OF such fundamental import
ance in determining questions of repro
duction among low forms of life. Thus.
it is wei known that certain bacteria
viii go OF reproducing their kind by
the splitting up of each individual to
- - t'~o. continuing TINS process over
and over so long as an abundance OF
lc~,. q Supplied and the temperature is
uniform: ard that when food becomes
scarce or the temperature unfavOrab'e
lin other words. when nutrition is IN
production ceases, and each cell, in
stead of dividing to form two. DEVELOPS
within itself a colony of offspring in
the form of spores, which can rest in
definitely before going on to develop
ment. Here it would be too fnIcn. per-
haps. TO say that sex is involved; yet,