Evening star., 1936-05-28
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress i'm Field,
Laboratory and Study.
TUOMZc HENRY
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

supposedly undifferentiated protoplas-
mic material, the cytoplasm.
The first step in the life of a multi
cellular creature is when the single
celled egg splits in two Then the two
halves split in turn. Then the four parts
Split-and so on billions of times. The
end result is the plant or animaI-the
tree, the ant, the human being. Each
time cell splits the cleavage is exact.
Each new cell consists of half of each
gene and half of all the cytoplasm that
was in the parent cell.
A simple example is the hens egg.
Obviously everything that is in the newly
Matched chick must have been in the
egg. With the insignificant exception
of some gases. nothing gets in or cut.
An infinitely minute part of this egg
IN the beginning is the egg proper. The
rest-the white and the yolk-is there
solely for the nourishment of the de-
veloping organism. 1t is not cytoplaSm,
per Sc. 1t is material which can be
transformed into cytoplasm. In the
mammal the same material has to be
obtained from the body of the mother.
This first pluri-potent cell splits.
There are two cells, each half the size
of the first. Actually, the mass of the
two is little greater than the one and
this is the essential basis of DR.. Just's
whole hypotheSiS-the mass of the two
nuclei or aggregations of genes is mi
nutely greater than the mass of the
single nuclei, and the mass of the cyto-
plaSm is minutely less. The nucleus has
grown. 1t must have obtained the extra
material from somewhere. The only
place from which it could have gotten
it, DR.. Just says, is the cytoplasm The
nucleus has withdrawn some cytoplasm
into itself.
Now, DR.. just holds, the effect of
this withdrawal is to inhibit the poten-
tialities of the cytoplasm. Either of the
two cells cannot do as much as could
the parent cell. So on until the three
fundamental layers of cells that make
up the animal body are developed. At
some point the genes withdraw the cell
potentiality for becoming skin or nerv-
GUS system and restrict it to becoming
kidney or liver Thus it continues,
through more and more minute differ
entiations, until the complete body is
formed. Always the nucleus is growing
at the expense of the cytoplasm. 1t may
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start. At the end it is thousand parts
to one.
Here two supposedly distinct processes
begin to make their appearance. The
first is development. The cleavage prod
uct of the human being develops the
body form and organs of the human
being. A hens egg never gives rise to
the rabbit nor gorilla egg to rat.
In some way offspring inherit man
ness, rat-neSs, ETC., and in natures econ
on1y there is never any confusion in this
field. Humanity is inherent in the first
cell from which man arises. That cell
always contains the potentialitieS of his
hands and his brain which are not con-
tanned in the primal cells of+his nearest
relatives. One can be sure that the
product Of human cell will be some
sort of a human being.
The second process is that of specific
inheritance. Offspring tend to resemble
their parents not only in general but
In details. In many cases this specific
inheritance follows mathematical for
mula. The children of blue-eyed, light
haired parents, passing over complicat-
ing factors, viii have blue eyes and Light