MORE WOOL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 22 November 1927, Page 7

MORE WOOL

BIGGER, MEATIER COWS

X-RAY ON GERM CELLS.

RItOEESSOR MULLER’S DISCOVERY.

New York, Nov. 5. Vastly improved stock and crops are promised to the world's farmers by a discovery, hailed by science as the greatest step in the study of evolution. Not only win breeds be improved, but new varieties can be artificially produced, enabling New Zealand, tor instance, to grow crops and to raise cattle on lands now worthless.

These expectations are the result of Professor Herman Muller’s discovery of a method of securing mutations, which are the basis of the evolution and progress of all species of lite.

Mutations occur naturally . each year, hut Professor Muller’s discovery speeds them up by 1000 per cent. The desirable characteristics in a plant or animal are thus produced, and can be. .perpetuated in the same way as the new varieties which Luther Burbank and others produced naturally. The new method consists of applying strong X-rays to the germ cells prior to fertilisation. The X-rays apparently break up the germ cells into infinitesimal particles, carrying the hereditary characteristics, and causing great mutations in the offspring. Muller has already achieved successful experiments in fruit flies, and he has just returned from Berlin, where he explained the method to the International Congress of Geneticists. He has produced and lierpetuated Hies with wings no largei than those of smaller flies. He is preparing now to produce similar mutations in the higher forms of animal life as well as in plants.

GREATEST BOON CONFERRED ON HUMANITY.

Scientists, after hearing Professor Muller's explanations, are convinced of the correctness of his theory. One of them declared that the discovery presages the greatest boon science has ever conferred on humanity, because of the possibility of producing plants and animals able to resist disease, as. well as being meatier, woollier, and larger. Scientists agree with Muller that there is no reason why mutations which can be produced in flies, cannot be produced m all animals, including human beings.

1 rofessor Muller’s technical and cautious statement, given out bv the Texas University, where he has carried out his researches, admits that the nature of the mutations cannot be predictable in any given ease. Consequently, many undesirable qualities might be produced, necessitating great care in selecting offspring for breeding purposes. The X-rays do not affect children’s heredity when used in ordinary medical examinations, Professor Mui. ler explained.

X-rays, occasionally employed as a contraceptive, ensure temporary sterility, but women bearing children later may produce degenerates, or geniuses in their grandchildren, the X-rays requiring two generations to produce mutations