The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-02-12
THE LAWS OF HEREDETY.
ARE BEING WORKED OUT in a
HARVARD LABORATORY.

Evidence Of q Mouse
In the basement of one of the labora-
tories OF Harvard University, Cam
bridge, is happy and contented set
Element of mice, rabbits anu guinea
pigs with pedigrees, many OF them'
that might weu be envied by the May
flower descendants. In fact. compared
with some of these modest guinea pigs,
the best accredited Mayfower descend
ant it little better than a paTVenu.
And these pigs, mice, rabbits. each In
its own way, are proving the truth 0I
scientific principle discovered some
40 years ago by one George Mendel, an
Austrian monk, in the garuen OF NsS
cloister-a principle which is known TO
science as MendePs law of heredltS.
Mendel and other later investigators
proved his law for plants, and the LII
tie animals in the --aryard cages are.
engaged in proving it for the higher
organisms.
Mendels law was originally discoT-
cred by a series of pretty experiments
in the cultivation of garden flowers In
which he crossed different varieties OF
ordinary garden peas and carefully
watched the result The result proved
that if pea with yellow cotyledons,
as botanists cali the seed leaves or
the young plant, were crossed with
one having green cotyledons, all the
peas resulting from the process would
have yellow cotyledons. Ii these peas
were crossed with others having sim
liar yellow cotyledons the result still
followed that yellow was the charac-.
teristic color of the seed leaves. But
il the peas descended from the original
crossing were self-pollinated, or
crossed with each other, the result
would be one green-seeded pea for eV-
cry three yellow ones. In other words,
the peas inherited a characteristic from
the first crossing that did not appear
until the second generation, and then
only in crosses between two plants III
both of which the inherited charac-
teristic might be considered latent.
By the discovery and study OF this
curious series of inheritances among
the garden plants of his cloister the
Austrion monk evolved a law that now,
according to modern scientists, bids
pair to prove as fundamental TO
right understanding of heredlty as the
law OF definite proportions in chemls-
try"
To say that science watches, day by
day, the development OF heredity Pc
culiarities in many happy families OF
guinea pigs, mice or rabbits lmme-
diately suggests question: How can
one detect the inherited characteristics
of these little animals? One guinea
pig, one might say, is very hike another
guinea pig, and one rabbit is very like
another rabbit. But visit to the do
nestle menagerie at the Harvard ZOO
logical laboratory shows Immediately
that there are Differences in guinea
pigs; some of them are albinos,, for
example, snow white with pink eyes,
while others are only partly albino-
"mosaics," the zoologist calls IAem--
and yet others are angoraS, With long
hair like an angora kitten, or 'roset-
ted, "a word that describes a guinea
pig whose hair grows IN such fashion
that the timid little creature presents
the appearance Of being chronicallY eX-
posed to blowy weather. There are
more differences, indeed, among the
guinea pigs than among either the mice
or rabbits but in all classes there are
differences enough to establish the
question of inheritance and show how
this. that or the other characteristic
has or has not been transmitted One
of the most curious results OF these
investigations has been the evolution
of a race OF guinea pigs with four toes
where ordinarily guinea pig has but
three-a curious popularity whose ap-
pearance in Father Pig and subsequent
transmission through a series of geu-
erations is an occurrence that, so far
can be explained only by the theory
that Mother Pig, far back in her un-
known ancestry, Hdu Adu S1E1iAdi ~
! tour-toed progenitor.
Every creature in this unique scien
tific menagerie has an established pedi
gree and the record in which the sci
enlist sets down the birth and life
history of the animals under his charg,
has during the last three years in
Guided something over 1900 entries
/ This record includes picture OF thu
! subject itself, rough outline drawing
| on which are recorded-somewha as i
/ done on typical drawing OF the hu
man figure when new recruit enter
! the United States army or navy-th
= 1...i-+ia nrlri and nnlcA.. a