Abstract
Prof. Russo has published a general account of very interesting experiments which he has made on the determination of the female sex in rabbits. His method was to dose the animals with lecithin—a well-known constituent of yolk of egg—administering it in various wavs. He injected it into the peritoneal cavity or subcutaneously; he even introduced it through the mouth. From control experiments it seemed clear that one of the results of introducing the lecithin in considerable quantity into the system, where it normally occurs in many different tissues, was the accumulation of deutoplasmic material in the ovarian follicles and in the oocytes; and Russo found that rabbits treated in this way, arid subsequently mated, had more female than male offspring. Sometimes all the offspring were female. The security of the conclusion that the lecithin treatment was the condition of this disproportionate number of female offspring depends on the number of cases investigated and on the avoidance of selected stocks. Russo is well aware of this, and he does not betray any dogmatism.
Studien über die Bestimmung des weiblichen Geschlechtes.
By Prof. Achille Russo. Pp. v + 105.(Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1909.) Price 3 marks.
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Studien über die Bestimmung des weiblichen Geschlechtes . Nature 83, 486 (1910). https://doi.org/10.1038/083486a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/083486a0