Milford chronicle., 1904-02-12
LAWS OF HEREDlTY.
Interesting Experiments In Mice and
Guinea Pig Inheritances.

Guinea Pig Inheritances.
In the basement of one of the Har-
ward university laboratories lives a
happy. well fed and self satisfied set
tlement of nice rabbits and guinea
pigs, whose respective family histories.
from the oldest patriarch to the young
est great-great-grandchild, are matters
of scientific record, these records in
turn furnishing data for a long and pa
tent study of their inherited charac-
teristics. Every creature has an estab-
lished pedigree, and the record in which
the scientist who is studying them has
noted the birth and life history of each
little animal numbers something over
1900 entries. This record includes
rough outline drawing of the animal
something like the typical human figure
on which a recruiting sergeant marks
down physical characteristics of new
recruit in the United States army or
navy-on which are noted its individual
markings and distribution of color.
To say that science thus watches the
development of hereditary peculiarities
in guinea pigs, mice or rabbits imme-
diately suggestsa question-how can one
detect the inherited characteristics Of
these little animals? One guinea pig. one
might say. is very like another guinea
pig. and one rabbit very like another
rabbit. Buta visit to the menagerie atthe
Harvard geological laboratory shows
Immediately that there are differences
in guinea pigs. Some are albinOs, for
example-snOw white. with pink eyes
others are only partly albino-"mosa- /
les" the zoOlogist calls them-and yet
others are angoras, with long hair like |
an angora kitten. or ''rosetted." a word |
that describes a guinea pig whose hair /
grows in such fashion that the timid /
little animal appears to be chronically I
exposed to blowy weather. There are /
more differences among the guinea |
pigs than among either the mice or !
rabbits, but in all classes there are diff |
ferences enough to establish questions I
of Inheritance and show how this, that |
or other characteristic has or has not .
been transmitted One of the most /
curious results of these investigations,
for example has been the evolution of
a race of guinea pigs with four toes.
where ordinarily a guinea pig has but
three, a curious pecuiiarity whose APP
pearance in Father Pig and subse
quent transmission through a series
of generations is as yet only partly ex-
plainable
One of the most interesting crea-
lures in the collection is the waltzing
mouse from Japan. whose great recrea-
ton is to spin round and round and
round in one direction until he gets
tired and then round and round and
round in the other The waltzing
mouse. moreover, appears intoxicated
when he walks, and the idea that a
straight line is the shortest distance
between two points has evidently never
occurred to his philosophy. In mating,
the waltzing mouse proves for animals
exactly what a series of experiments
conducted years ago by an Austrian
monk proved for the flowers in his
garden-his descendants. provided he
is mated with a normal mouse, are ali
normal. and so also are their descend
ants so long rs there is no mating with
another mouse who has the latent in
herited taste for the waltz: but when
both parents have such an Inheritance
one out of every four of their descend
ants will take its recreation by spin
ming round and round and round in
the ancestral fashion.
The practical utility of such lines of
experiment lies. obviously. in improv-
ing the breed of various domestic ami
mails, but the little Harvard menagerie
is also working out problems of great
in heredity in general-a
question of the greatest Importance
when one realizes how vital in our
modern civilization are our individual
inheritances either of disease or char
acter.