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
There is complete disagreement between the results of Ancel and Bouin on
the one hand, and those of Shattock and Seligmann on the other, with
regard to the effects of ligature of the vasa deferentia. The latter
authors, as mentioned above, found that after ligature not only the
somatic characters but the testis itself developed normally. The
experiments were performed on Herdwick sheep and domestic fowls. They
state that on examination the testes were found to be normally developed,
and spermatogenesis was in progress. The experiments of Ancel and Bouin
were carried out on rabbits seven to eight weeks old, and consisted in
removing one testis, and ligaturing the vas deferens of the other. About
six months after the operation the testis left _in situ_ was smaller, the
seminal tubules contained few spermatogonia, though Sertoli's cells (cells
on the walls of the tubules to which the true spermatic cells are
attached) were unchanged; while the interstitial cells were enormously
developed, by compensatory hypertrophy in consequence of the removal of
the other testis. At the same time the male instincts and the other
generative organs were unchanged. In a few cases, however, Ancel and Bouin
observed atrophy of the interstitial cells as well as the spermatic cells.
They believe this is due to the nerves supplying the testis being included
in the ligature. This is rather a surprising conclusion in view of the
fact that testicular grafts show active spermatogenesis. It is difficult
to understand why nerve connection should be necessary for the
interstitial cells and not for the spermatic, and, moreover, if the
interstitial cells are really the source of the hormone on which the
somatic characters depend, they must be acting in the grafts in which the
nerve connections have been all severed.
The facts concerning cryptorchidism, that is to say, failure of the
descent of the testes in Mammals, seem to show that the hormone of the
testis is not derived from semen or spermatogenesis, for in the testes
which have remained in the abdomen there is no spermatogenesis, while the
interstitial cells are present, and the animals in some cases exhibit
normal or even excessive sexual instinct, and all the male characteristics
are well marked. It may be remarked, however, in criticism of this
conclusion that the descent of the testes being itself a somatic sexual
character of the male, its failure when the interstitial cells are normal
and the spermatic cells defective, would rather tend to prove that the
defect of the latter is itself the cause of cryptorchidism.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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