"Er halt die Theile in seiner Hand, Doch fehlt ihm leider das gelst' ge Band."
He holds the parts within his hand, But lacks the mental grasp of all.
For full explanation of the significance of my law, I must refer you to the first lecture in my book entitled "Within the Bud,"--and the lesson therein on the theory of "Pangenesis," which space forbids my repeating here. This lesson will convey conclusively to any thinking mind what heredity really means. After a brief study of this interesting subject the importance of the "Law of the Cross-Transmission of Characteristics" will become amply apparent and the intelligent reader will undoubtedly wonder why it has not been applied and acknowledged long ago. For answer, I must refer you to the schools, whose policy it has ever been to, at any rate, abstain from assisting, if not absolutely to diplomatically hinder the development of fresh scientific discoveries. But the time is fast approaching when a sharp and decisive end to this iniquity will be demanded by the will of an enlightened people; only then will the existing orthodox power be compelled to loosen its obstructive grip which the interests of humanity have, so far, been powerless to unclasp. But, to quote the stirring words of one who looked with prophetic, faithful eye into the tangled problems of futurity:
"The people will come into their own at last,-- God is not mocked for ever."
My Law of the Cross-Transmission of Characteristics may be simply stated as follows:
Under all conditions, the matter of sex is determined in the egg-cell at the moment of fertilization.
Under all conditions, the sex is determined by a struggle for the mastery in the egg-cell, between the energy of that egg-cell and the energy of the male spermatozoon. In a crisis, when the life of one of the two seeds is trembling in the balance, one of them--through the exertion of its "Latent Reserve Energy," dominates, and engenders a child of the opposite sex. This reversal of the sex is in conformity with the Law of the _Cross-Transmission of Sex_; that is, the mother is represented in the male offspring and the father in the female,--this being the normal expression of the Law of Cross-Transmission of Characteristics.