Fig. 2. An Albino female Guinea-fig. Its ovaries were removed and in their place were introduced ovaries from a young black guinea-pig. Compare Fig. 1.
transplanted from one individual into another retains the character which it originally had, quite unaffected by the changed body with which it is associated. This Dr. John C. Phillips and the writer have recently shown in the following way. The ovaries were removed from a young black guinea-pig, Fig. 1, and these were transplanted into the body of a white guinea-pig, previously castrated, Fig. 2. The white guinea-pig was now mated with another white guinea-pig, Fig. 3. Normal white guinea-pigs produce only white offspring when mated with each other, but these two have now produced in three successive litters six young, all black. Three of these are shown in Fig. 4. Evidently the germ-plasm of the black guinea-pig retained its original character even after transplantation into the body of a white one.
In order better to understand the processes of heredity we should be familiar with what takes place when a new individual is formed. The new individual, whether an animal or a plant, has its beginning in the union of two bits of germ-plasm, an egg cell furnished by the mother and a sperm cell furnished by the father. Whether the union of the germ-plasm takes place within the maternal body or not is quite immaterial; among a great many animals it does not.
The new individual, it will be observed, is dual in origin, and to its dying day it retains a dual nature. For the maternal and paternal contributions of germ-plasm retain a certain distinctness as we shall see, and may in part separate from each other at reproduction.
Each germ-cell (egg or sperm), so far as its contribution to heredity is concerned, stands for a complete organism of its species, bears the potentialities of a complete organism, and under appropriate condi-
