Scientific Cupid

In Hartford, Conn, lives a man who has proved that the mating cycles of many birds and animals can be controlled by artificially altering the length of their days & nights (TIME, June 28, 1943). His name is Dr. Thomas Hume Bissonnette, and he is Trinity College's photoperiodist. Last week Dr. Bissonnette quoted Tennyson:

In the spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin's breast;

In the spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest;

In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish'd dove . . .

Correct, said Dr. Bissonnette, photo-periodically correct.

In countries with pronounced seasons, nature wants the young produced at favorable times of the year. To accomplish this, parents must mate just far enough in advance.

Temperature has little or nothing to do with it; the alarm clock nature uses is the changing length of the day. Unconsciously, the animal's inner organism watches the duration of daylight. When the days have lengthened (or diminished) long enough, the reproductive organs of both sexes begin to grow. They are ready to function at the ideal mating season.

Mating to Order. Dr. Bissonnette found it a cinch to tamper with nature's timetable.* He put all sorts of creatures in quarters with blinds to exclude the daylight and electric lights to simulate it. To make a species mate to order, he had only to control properly the length of the indoor day.

Spring-breeding species, such as migratory birds, mated in fall or winter when Dr. Bissonnette exposed them to lengthening "daylight." Fall-mating species, such as goats, mated in spring when the photoperiodic cupid beguiled them with shortening days. Overstimulated pheasants laid 100 eggs, and died. A female raccoon gave birth to two litters in one year.

Such triumphs have brought Dr. Bissonnette many scientific honors, have encouraged him to further labors. Last week he was working with starlings, trying to determine how long a rest they need between forced breeding sprees. He brought groups of starlings up to mating condition, then sterilized them by cutting down on lighting. Six weeks ago, he changed the lighting again. So far, he could report no signs of reviving sex interest. But he watched hopefully. Said he: "I am now trying to see how long a period of rest they need before the glands can be brought up again."

*Dr. Bissonnette washes his hands of man. Human beings, in breeding condition the year round, are not a photoperiodic species, says he.

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