The cause and control of sex in human offspring.

  • Jackson, R. Clay.
Date:
1926
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Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: The cause and control of sex in human offspring. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The Cause and Control of Sex 13 use of the word metabolism. When, therefore, Benedict, Emmes, Dr. Oscar Riddle, of the Carnegie Institution, and others inform us that metabolism is higher in the male than in the female parent they do not convey a very definite idea. It is possible that they mean that the speed of these cellular changes is greater in the male than in the female. But we are left to conjecture, for the definition of metabolism, as we have it today, does not convey, primarily, any concept of speed, or rate of motion whatever. 6. The school of metabolism (in sex determina¬ tion) is working with the general viewpoint that what¬ ever the sex character is, or wherever it is located in the germ cell, it fluctuates from time to time in its com¬ parative power to express itself in the reproductive pro¬ cess, whether we comprehend the primary cause of those fluctuations or not. In order to make myself clearly un¬ derstood when referring to this variable capacity in the germ cell, I shall hereafter use the term sex potential althought I cannot entirely escape the use of the term metabolism or of its derivatives. 7. Turning at will, and reading the story of the on¬ ward march of human progress and knowledge, we shall indeed seek in vain for any other part of it which pre¬ sents such a hopeless floundering mass of uncertainty, contradiction, and general chaos as does the account of the work done thus far upon the subject here consider¬ ed. From tadpoles to sheep, and from plant lice to guinea pigs,—all up and down the animal creation,—enormous volumes of patient work have been carefully performed. A few authentic facts have been set up but they have not all been interpreted fully, nor adequately correlated either to the question of determination or of control. A few experimental results obtained and reported by some have been repeated by' others, but most such results have not been attained by others. 8. No more brilliant nor more exasperating example could possibly come to light than an article (1) by Pro- Note (1) Science, N. S. vol. 25 (Jan. June, 1907.)
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