Evening star., 1950-10-22

Try were promoted by a New York tabloid news
paper 1t hired number of scientists, set them
up in an old laboratory and issued almost daily
communicates on the results obtained with rats,
rabbits minks, horses. cats, dogs goats and cows
The theory behind these experiments was based on
the work of DR.. Felix Unterberger, who had ad-
vised would-be mothers to drink bicarbonate of
soda if they wanted sons.
Dr. Unterberger's principle was further devel-
oped by two London doctors named Taylor. Their
prescription OF internal rnsings before attempted
conception with sodium bcarbonate solutions Qor
males) or OF Tactic acid (for females) was purport
edly 80 to 80 per cent successful. The tabloid
almost gave up its campaign when two of the
papers employees tried the alkaline treatment
and got girl. Face was saved when reporters
found couple in the Bronx who had received mail
instructions from the Taylors and had son.
Man Depends ON Luck
lHE paper predicted that animal breeding would
be revolutionized as result of these studies. But
the U. S. Department of Agriculture tried the
formula, found the treatment had no effect"
Careful investigation is gradually sorting fact
from fancy in sex determination. Although in
lower animals such as frogs and rabbits it is pos
sible to change the sex of the fertiized ovum -
along the lines of the environmenta control expert
ments by Drs. Witschi and Petersen - we humans
must still rely on chance
The sex of human child is fixed at the instant
of conception and nothing can be done to change
that fact. However, it is already established that
the father, rather than the mother, is the deter
mining factor in an offspring's sex. There are
two kinds of spermatozoa, one producing
male offspring and one producing female.
The egg cells in all cases are neutral and cannot
influence the sex of the offspring Half of the male
germ cells contain an accessory chromosome,
often called the AZ chromosome the determiner
of femaleness
The remaining cells lack the X chromosome but
have Y chromosome. When one of these ferti-
Lies an egg it's boy. Experts in Moscow, Cam
bridge England and Princeton have made def
mite progress in attempts to separate the =" from
the ''Y" chromosomes
Evidence From Twins
The recent discovery which may be key to the
problem of sex determination is based on expert
ments conducted at Duke University in Durham,
N c. Doctors Deryl Hart and James D. Moody
have already gone far beyond the hypothesis stage
Their findings are solidly based on more than
decade of recorded facts and figures. careful
tabulation of animal case histories indicated to
them that conceptions in the early part of the
female fertile period favor female births Then,
with controlled laboratory experiments, they
proved that rats, bred during the latter portion
of the fertile period. produced more males.
The doctors then examined the birth records of
over 5000 pairs of twins and found statistical
coroboration for believing that in humans too,
early conceptions are more likely to be female
while late ones are male. In report of their
progress, Doctors Hart and Moody observed:
I'VE feel that the time has arrived to apply to
humans, in selected cases. the information so far
obtained. Preparations for this are under way"