Hormones and Heredity: A Discussion of the Evolution of Adaptations and the Evolution of SpeciesCunningham, J. T. (Joseph Thomas)
Science
Hormones and Heredity: A Discussion of the Evolution of Adaptations and the Evolution of Species
Cunningham, J. T. (Joseph Thomas)
Endocrinology; Heredity; Hormones; Mendel's law
We have here, then, in the position of the testes in Mammalia a condition
which is not in the slightest degree 'adaptive' in the ordinary sense--
that is, fulfilling any special function or utility. The condition must be
regarded as distinctly disadvantageous, since the organs are more exposed
to injury, and the abdominal wall is weakened, as we know from the risk of
scrotal hernia in man. But from the Lamarckian point of view the facts
support the conclusion that the condition is the effect of certain
mechanical strains, and is of somatic origin, while the correlations here
reviewed are entirely unexplained by any theory of mutation or blastogenic
origin.
OPPOSING EVIDENCE
We have now to review certain cases which seem to support conclusions
contrary to those which we have maintained in the preceding pages, and to
consider the evidence which has been published in support of other
theories. It must be admitted that the occurrence of male secondary
characteristics on one side of the body, and female on the other, is in
consistent with the view that the development of such characters is due to
the stimulus of a hormone, since the idea of a hormone means something
which diffuses by way of the blood-vessels, lymph-vessels, and interstices
of the tissues, throughout the body, and the hormone theory of secondary
sexual characters assumes that these characters are potentially present by
heredity in both sexes. The occurrence of male somatic characters on one
side or in some part of the body and female on the other, usually
associated with the corresponding gonads, has been termed
gynandromorphism, and has long been known in insects. Cases of this
condition have been observed, though much more rarely, in Vertebrates. I
am not aware of any authentic instances in Mammals, and the supposition
that in stags reduction or abnormality of one antler may be the result of
removal or injury to the testis of one side, or the opposite, have been
completely disproved by experiments in which unilateral castration has
been carried out without any effect on the antlers at all. In birds,
however, a few cases have been recorded by competent observers with a
definiteness of detail which leaves no possibility of doubt. One of the
more recent of these is that of a pheasant of the white-ringed Formosan
variety, _P. torquatus_, of the Chinese pheasant. [Footnote: C. J. Bond,
'Unilateral Development of Secondary Male Characters in a Pheasant,'
_Journ. of Genetics_, vol. iii., 1914.] On the left side this bird shows
the plumage, colour, and the spur of the male; on the right leg there is
no spur except the small rudiment normally occurring in the hen. The
difference in plumage between the two sides, however, is not complete. The
white collar is strictly limited to the left side, but the iridescent blue
green of head and neck is present on both sides, though more marked on the
left. Only a few male feathers appear in the wing coverts of the left
side.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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