PREFATORY NOTE 



IT1HE Professorship of Biology was founded 

 in 1908 for a period of five years partly 

 by the generosity of an anonymous bene- 

 factor, and partly by the University of 

 Cambridge. The object of the endowment 

 was the promotion of inquiries into the 

 physiology of Heredity and Variation, a 

 study now spoken of as Genetics. 



It is now recognized that the progress of 

 such inquiries will chiefly be accomplished 

 by the application of experimental methods, 

 especially those which Mendel's discovery 

 has suggested. The purpose of this in- 

 augural lecture is to describe the outlook 

 over this field of research in a manner 

 intelligible to students of other parts of 

 knowledge. 



W. B. 



28 October, 1908 



