The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1910-03-02
ADVANCES THEORY OF SEX
RESULTS OF EX-
PERINIENTS ARE GIVEN.
Prof. Bateson of Cambridge Univer-
sity Gives Scientific Demonstra-
ton of New Theory.

ton of New Theory.
PHILADELPHIA London ca
Bile to the Public Ledger says: Prof
William Bateson of Cambridge Uni
versity, in a lecture on "Heredity
|of Sex" at the Royal Institution,
demonstrated scientifically that
daughters are like the father, and
sons are like the mother, rather than
the recent German theory that the
sex of child could be determined
by prescriptions and changes of diet
on the part of its mother.
What We want to know" said the
professor, lis, what constitutes the
dlHerence and what regulates the dis
tlnctlon between male and female. -
He then explained the steps by which
scientists are arriving at the new
theory OF sex with the aid of plants.
showing how Decentralization of
red and white primulas produces GER
tain definite hybrids in accordance
with an established law.
This led him to the conclusion that
distinct element is responsible for
the difference between the red and
white primulas. He then asked
whether the prevalence of two types
OF population, male and female.
might not be governed by the same
law.
His experiments included the vege-
table and certain lower strata of the
animal kingdoms. Taking two va
rieties of sweetpea, the upright and
the hooded, he showed by a series
OF lantern slides that there is some
element in the standard upright
sweet pea antagonistic to the produc-
ton Of the blue variety.
The thing that sets the sweet pea
upright" says Prof Bateson, sis op-
posed to the thing that makes it blue
This has given us a clue to the phe-
nomena Of sex"
Prof BatesOn then passed to the
currant moth, showing that the rules
which produced certain definite COL
ored hybrids in the plant apply to the
production Of different colored moths
BY cross-fertilization he had been
able to produce males of a variety
never before known to entomologists.
The same rules, he said, apply to the
color changes in canaries. When a
cinnamon bird is mated with a green
hen the male birds which result are
always green and the female birds
are always cinnamon. Here again,
he pointed out, it is apparent that
there is an element in the male an
tagonistic to the production of a GER
tain color.
He next took the results produced
by the mating Of Leghorn fowls,
whose flesh is white, with silky
fowls, whose flesh is dark. He had
been able thus ito construct a bird"
out of which everything Is taken that
can be taken, and thus serves for the
scientist "a test paper for expert
ments." In other words, when this
bird Is crossed with anything else the
marks of the cross show at once In
the offspring Experiments conduct
ed with horned and hornless sheep
obeyed the same law.
Coming to the human species he
showed that when one parent had de-
formed hands it produced descend
ants who were and were not de-
formed, but in an opposite sex of the
deformed parent. BY actual investi-
cation he had ascertained that ak
color-blind women have had seven
| teen color-blind sons.
He closed with a statement Of
great physiological interest based
upon the law shown to be established
by Decentralization. He held the
belief, he said, that the male cells
are both male and female and female
cells equally both male and female.
Only in this way can the occurrence
Of male and female in the human
race conform with the law of which
he gave so many remarkable exam
pies in the vegetable and animal
worlds. He left the impression that
If ever the secret of the determina-
ton Of sex is to be discovered it will
be by such careful studies of the act
ual results of Decentralization in
plants and lower orders of animals
as no dpcprihpd