Determining Sex.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 February 1922, Page 3

Determining Sex.

MELBOURNE PROFESSOR’S VIEWS. SYDNEY, Jan 31. Some interesting facts concerning the question of the determination of sex have just been published by Professor Agar, professor of zoology' at the Melbourne University. He states that the theory' of the possibility of obtaining offspring of a desired sex was not new to scientists.

The discovery of the two sorts of spermatozoa was made in America, and most of the research work had . been done here,- but il was only within recent years that the matter had been regarded fts important, and much attention ‘ had been paid to it.- The functions of the two different sorts had been definitely established in the ca'Se of insects only. There was no doubt that equal’: numbers of the two kinds were produced in the male in all the higher animals, and by analogy from what was known of insects, there could also be no doubt that the small ones produced males and the big ones females. The latest information from overseas on the subject bore allusion to the possibility of separating the large ones from the small ones. He presumed that this would be done by means of filters ,which Rad never vet heefi carried but. If this,were done, ahd a sufficient quantity of either kind collected, it would not be dfficult to apply the theory’ referred to in practice. He saw no reason why the practice should not he adopted in the breeding of pedigree stock, but he did not consider that it would be. availed of in human relations. At the present time Professor Agar is engaged in research work on the same subject in the case of the wallaby ,in which the difference between the, two kinds of spermatozoa is cleanly marked.