Ah, Sweet Mystery

Perched on a high laboratory stool, crooning snatches of Beethoven and Mozart, an old man squinted happily through his microscope. Herbert Spencer Jennings, 76, was watching the complex love affairs of some of earth's smallest and simplest creatures.

Geneticist Jennings made his name & fame at Johns Hopkins. Six years ago he retired to the Los Angeles campus of the University of California to continue his researches into the mystery of life. There last week he was eager and happy to talk about his discoveries.

Sex among the Animalcules. Less than 1/125th of an inch long and shaped like the sole of a lady's slipper, Paramecium bursaria or the slipper animalcule is a comparatively large member of the class Infusoria--a family of hairy, one-celled animals that swarm in lily ponds, goldfish bowls, and even in water glasses on the best dining tables. Paramecium, because of its size and fecundity (two generations a day), is a favorite subject for the study of unicellular life. Dr. Jennings, whose private laboratory is cluttered with his favorite "critters," believes they also provide important keys to the study of multicellular animals, such as man.

Like amoebae and other one-celled protozoans, Dr. Jennings' creatures swallow and digest food, expel waste matter, multiply by the simple process of dividing themselves in two. But, unlike the amoeba, they also enjoy sexual relations. They mate by joining and exchanging nuclei.

Through careful observation of more than 10,000 "clones" (detached families) of paramecia, conducted with Winchellian zest and godlike detachment, Dr. Jennings has concluded that paramecia's mating is dependent on sex and that their choice of a mate has important bearing on the character of their descendants. "They behave," he explains, "a lot like humans. This one here, now. He was an exconjugant of first cousins. He's no account. Oh, but say, here's a good healthy one. His sex life is really something. . . ."

Infinitesimal Incest. These paramecium clones, which consist of the divisions and redivisions of one exconjugant (mated cell), are roughly comparable to the aggregate of cells in a multicellular animal like man. But, unlike the very different but interdependent cells in a human body, the cells in a clone are both identical and independent; they must struggle with each other to survive.

Each clone has family characteristics shared by all members, and a life cycle much like that of a mammal. In a young clone, cells multiply rapidly but are unable to conjugate. Following youth comes an adolescent period of slight conjugal activity and less multiplication. At maturity, sexual reactions are strongly marked and the individuals conjugate with abandon, until at last a period of decline sets in, leading eventually to death. Frequently, in such an old clone, doughty individuals who attempt conjugation expire in the act.

The length of these life cycles, Dr. Jennings has discovered, are determined by both environmental and hereditary conditions. Well-nourished clones become sexually mature in two or three months, while those on starvation diets take 14 months or more to reach puberty. They then produce weak offspring, or none at all. Mating between members of old clones produces offspring, that die early or are otherwise "pathological or abnormal," while individuals from young clones conjugate with prolific results.

Dr. Jennings' experiments in infinitesimal incest have yielded valuable hints on the effects of human inbreeding. Last summer they also led the scientist to a surprising discovery. In his efforts to mate various cells of one variety of paramecium, he discovered evidence that the paramecia are divided into no less than eight sexes. Unable to determine the physiological differences between them, he has found proof that each sex will mate cheerfully with any one of the other seven, but rigidly eschews homosexuality.

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