The Physiology of Heredity
The following is a transcription of the August 1959 issue of Dr. Royal Lee’s Applied Trophology newsletter, originally published by Standard Process Laboratories.
Also in this issue:
- A Simple Solution
- Tip of the Month (Bee Sting)
- Nutrition of Aged Cardiac Patients
- Wake Up and Read
- High Points of Cal-Amo
The Physiology of Heredity
We resemble our parents and ancestors because our cell chromosomes carry to us the same set of plans—blueprints as it were—that guided the growth and development of those parents and ancestors.
Identical twins carry identical chromosomes in their cells. They are so much alike that their fingerprints are duplicates. Their teeth are so much alike that dentists’ models of their upper and lower dentition can be interchanged without losing the exact fit of the arching “hills and hollows.”1 Their handwriting is usually so much alike that experts cannot distinguish one from the other.
Gates in Human Genetics also reports many cases of diabetes that appeared at the same time in each of identical twins. In one case two sisters, one living in San Francisco, the other in New York, both developed the same degree of diabetes at age fifty-two. He quotes an authority who says he never saw a case where one of identical twins was attacked by measles without the other becoming similarly afflicted.
In another case a pair of identical twins, forty-one years of age, developed a duodenal ulcer at the same time, requiring operations a day apart. Another pair of twins at the age of five began to have epileptic attacks within a week of each other.
Then there is the celebrated case of male identical twins who were orphaned and adopted by separate families, each unaware of the existence of the other. At the age of thirty-five, they were found to be doing the same work (linemen for a power company), married to wives with the same name, and both had pet fox terrier dogs with the same name. Can this be heredity? No, I believe it is mental telepathy, for identical twins are often known to be aware of what the other is doing even to communicating without speech.
The genetic units of heredity (protomorphogens), which we discussed in the April 1959 issue, appear to be carried in the blood in the platelets and polymorphonuclear leukocytes. In pregnancy the rapid cell division promotes the release of greater than normal quantities of protomorphogens into the blood from the embryo, and the maternal gonad becomes loaded up with embryo blueprints, as it were, which causes subsequent germ cells of that female to be contaminated with the blueprints of the father, for all embryo protomorphogens are one-half duplicates of the genes of each parent.
It is obvious these protomorphogens circulating in the maternal blood influence tissue repair and reconstruction to a tremendous extent. It is interesting to note that photographs of couples who have raised large families show a startling resemblance to each other. (We have a collection and will be glad to supply illustrative copies to those interested.)
It will be obvious that this presence of paternal “blueprints” in the blood of a female who has had a child by one husband and subsequently remarries, the children of the latter marriage will be carrying characteristics of both male mates. This phenomenon, known as “telegony,” was first noted by an English horse breeder who had a mare that had mated with a zebra and was observed to give birth to colts that all had signs of zebra stripes, even when later mated to purebred stallions.
Geneticists have denied this possibility only because they are unacquainted with the possible theory of how it could happen. Animal breeders in general are aware of the contaminating effect of a mongrel mating on a purebred female, knowing that once such a mating occurs, no subsequent offspring will be true to type and cannot possibly be used as a show animal. We here have an interesting biological justification for a double standard of morals for the two sexes.
Here is a quote from a book written in 1897 by M.L. Holbrook, MD:2
“Telegony—There is one remarkable phenomenon spoken of by various writers as telegony, which has an important bearing on the subject of the transmission of acquired characters and shows the action of prenatal influence in an unexpected form. It is referred to by Professor Romanes when he says, ‘It has not unfrequently been observed, at any rate in mammals, that when a female has borne progeny to a male of one variety and subsequently bears progeny to a male of another variety, the younger progeny presents a more or less unmistakable resemblance to the father of the older one.’ …
“Professor Romanes made particular enquiries on this subject of professional and amateur breeders of animals, and he says most of his correspondents ‘are quite persuaded that it is of frequent occurrence; many of them regard it as a general rule, while some of them go so far as to make a point of always putting a mare, bitch, etc., to a good pedigree male in her first season, so that her subsequent progenies may be benefited by his influence, even though they be engendered by inferior sires.’ His own, more modest conclusion is that the evidence he obtained ‘is enough to prove the fact of a previous sire asserting his influence on a subsequent progeny, although this fact is one of comparatively rare occurrence.’
“The English Darwinian met with only one case in which the offspring of a woman by a second husband, who was a white man, showed the influence of her first husband, who was a negro. Mr. Herbert Spencer would seem to have been more successful. In The Contemporary Review for May 1893, Mr. Spencer gives the result of his own enquiries as to the effect on a white woman’s subsequent progeny of a previous union with a negro, and he quotes the opinion of a ‘distinguished correspondent’ that information given to him many years ago was to the effect that ‘the children of white women by a white father had been repeatedly observed to show traces of black blood, in cases where the woman had previous connection with (i.e., a child by) a negro.’
“Mr. Spencer refers also to Professor Marsh as authority for such a case and to the opinion of several medical professors who assured him, through Dr. W.J. Youmans, that the alleged result ‘is generally accepted as a fact.’ He gives as authoritative testimony the following statement of Dr. Austin Flint, taken from his Textbook of Human Physiology: ‘A peculiar and, it seems to me, inexplicable fact is that previous pregnancies had an influence on offspring. This is well known to breeders of animals…The same influence is observed in the human subject. A woman may have by a second husband children who resemble a former husband, and this is particularly well-marked in certain instances by the color of the hair and eyes.’
“This phenomenon would alone seem to answer the question of the transmission of acquired characters in the affirmative, for its explanation is to be found in the facts brought out by Darwin as to the action of foreign pollen on the structure of the mother plant, in relation to which Professor Romanes remarks: ‘When one variety fertilizes the ovules of another, not unfrequently the influence extends beyond the ovules to the ovarium, and even to the calyx and flower stalk, of the mother plant. This influence, which may affect the shape, size, colour, and texture of the somatic tissues of the mother, has been observed in a large number of plants belonging to many different orders.”
It appears that the commonest influence that disturbs the physiological normality of genetic influence—the proper functions of the chromosomes, genes, and component protomorphogens—is nutritional deficiency. Dr. H.H. Hilleman has reviewed this situation, available from us as Lee Foundation Reprint No. 66B. It has been stated that there is no known deformity of human offspring that cannot be duplicated in test animals by creating the proper deficiency in the mother’s diet.
Tests were reported in Science News Letter of January 28, 1956, showing how cleft palate, harelip, clubfoot, and missing bones and fingers could be produced at will via controlled deficiencies.
It seems unquestionable that these reactions are due to simple lack of essential, structural components. Zinc, for instance, is necessary to plant growth, though in infinitesimally small amounts. Zinc deficiency in plants is evidenced by deformed leaf shapes, showing the probability that it is instrumental in the transmission of genetic determinants.
A ten thousandth of a milligram is enough to prevent tomato plants from showing deficient signs.3 Driving a zinc-coated iron nail into an orange tree has cured zinc deficiency reactions. There is the true story of the discouraged orange grower in Florida who in Depression days nailed a “For Sale” sign on every fifth tree along the highway, trying to sell his orange grove, which had become a failure by reason of worn out soil. The next season, every tree that had the “For Sale” sign had good fruit on it, while the others were still barren.
References
- R. Gates. Human Genetics, Vol. 2, pp. 933, 935, 937. MacMillan, 1946.
- L. Holbrook, MD. Stirpiculture, pp. 85, 88, 1897.
- Lamb, Bentley, and Beattie. Trace Elements, p. 14. Academic Press, 1958.
A Simple Solution
England’s solution to their drug addiction problem is the height of simplicity. It deserves the consideration of everyone interested in law and order.
The United States admits to having 44,146 “known” drug addicts, and the United Kingdom lists 359 addicts. This great discrepancy in the number of drug addicts to be found between the two countries undoubtedly stems from the fact that the United States prohibits the sale of narcotics, except to doctors, etc., while England makes drugs available to addicts at cost.
This might sound illogical, but the eventual result of England’s policy was that smugglers and pushers could no longer profit by “hooking” new customers. In time the illegal trade, lacking a profit incentive, disappeared. New addicts stopped appearing because there was no readily available way for a nonaddict to get started. In time the old addicts died or took the cure.
Tip of the Month (Bee Sting)
Two Cal-Amo tablets swallowed with water at half-hour intervals will stop the swelling of bee sting and completely relieve the pain in less than two hours. Even quicker results are obtained by dissolving the tablet and applying to the sting.
Nutrition of Aged Cardiac Patients
The majority of aged cardiac patients who are seen in clinics or offices are in a deplorable nutritional state. The various cardiac drugs, such as digitalis and mercurials, reduce the desire for food. Many of these patients cannot take fruit juices, milk, iron, or vitamins because these items violently disagree with them. They live on very little and, to stimulate the appetite, take coffee or alcohol. Many are constipated and take laxatives regularly. Consequently, most of these patients are starving themselves. The patient should be instructed never to eat when nervous or fatigued. The surroundings must be made pleasant; harsh noises and all disturbances should be avoided at the table. Foods such as sweetbreads, liver, brains, or tripe should be incorporated in the diet. Adjunctive dietary factors, such as calcium, iron, and vitamins, are also necessary.
—Monat, H.A., Minneapolis, Geriatrics, 10:581–582, December 1955 (Minneapolis) From “Medical Literature Abstracts,” JAMA, pp. 708–709, February 25, 1956. (Bulletin no. 246-A-2)
Wake Up and Read
Reading is not only essential to a free society, but it enriches the individual. It is the reader who has the successful career; business and industry have never been able to find as many educated and intelligent people as they need. And it is the reader who lives in the fullest sense, because he makes the experiences of all mankind his own, through the magic of print.
—National Book Committee, 24 West 40th Street, New York City
High Points of Standard Process Nutritional Adjuncts
Cal-Amo Tablets: Most useful in the treatment of alkalosis, a physiological background essential for any allergic state to develop. In alkalosis calcium is precipitated out of body fluids; bursitis, neuritic, and arthritic pains are common, and the victim becomes allergic to various drugs and foods. The patient is nervous and subject to insomnia. Breathing exercises aggravate all symptoms and produce acute distress (by loss of carbonic acid).
The condition is more common in women during the menopause. These patients often cannot tolerate citrus juices and have a long history of allergy.
