The Organism as a Whole, from a Physicochemical ViewpointLoeb, Jacques
Science
The Organism as a Whole, from a Physicochemical Viewpoint
Loeb, Jacques
Biology; Life (Biology); Mendel's law
in the orientation of organs has the effect of changing the character
of organs.
[180] Loeb, J., Untersuchungen zur physiologischen Morphologie der
Tiere. II. Organbildung und Wachsthum. Würzburg, 1892.
[Illustration: FIG. 38]
There are only two ways by which we can account for these influences of
gravitation. Either certain substances flow to the lowest level and
collecting there induce growth and possibly changes in the character
of growth (as in _Antennularia_) or if the cells have elements of
different specific gravity the relative position of these elements may
possibly change and influence in this way the conditions for growth.
The influence of gravitation as well as of contact upon life phenomena
are at present little understood.
In all these cases of heteromorphosis the original form is not
restored. It is needless to say that they are incompatible with the
theory of natural selection.
The reader will have noticed that in this chapter one term has
not been mentioned which is commonly met with in the literature,
namely the “wound stimulus.” As the writer had indicated in a former
publication,[181] the word “stimulus” is generally used to disguise
our ignorance of (and also our lack of interest in) the causes which
underlie the phenomena which we investigate. Regeneration very often
does not take place near the wound but at some distance from it. But
even when the regeneration takes place at the edge of the wound the
latter only serves to create conditions for regeneration, and these
conditions cannot be expressed by the word “stimulus.”
[181] Loeb, J., _Die chemische Entwicklungserregung des tierischen
Eies_. Berlin, 1909.
While our knowledge of the rôle of the whole in regeneration is
incomplete in a great many details it seems that the known facts
warrant the statement that the phenomena of regeneration belong as much
to the domain of determinism as those of any of the partial phenomena
of physiology.
CHAPTER VIII
DETERMINATION OF SEX, SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTERS, AND SEXUAL INSTINCTS
_I. The Cytological Basis of Sex Determination_
1. It is a general fact that both sexes appear in approximately equal
numbers, provided a sufficiently large number of cases are examined.
This fact has furnished the clue for the discovery of the mechanism
which determines the relative number of the two sexes. The honour
of having pointed the way to the solution of the problem belongs
to McClung.[182] It has been known that certain insects, _e. g._,
Hemiptera and Orthoptera, possess two kinds of spermatozoa but only one
kind of eggs. The two kinds of spermatozoa differ in regard to a single
chromosome, which is either lacking or different in one-half of the
spermatozoa.
[182] McClung, C. E., “The Accessory Chromosome--Sex Determinant?”
_Biol. Bull._, 1902, iii., 43.
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