THE INTERPRETATION OF FACT IN 

 THE STUDY OF HEREDITY 



By CHARLES WALKER, D.Sc. 



Heredity in Relation to Eugenics, by Charles Benedict Davenport. (London : 

 Williams & Norgate, 1912.) — Problems of Life and Reproduction, by Marcus 

 Hartog. (London: John Murray, 1913.) — Heredity, by J. Arthur Thomson. 

 2nd edition. (London : John Murray, 1912.) — "The Logic of Darwinism," by 

 Archer Wilde. (Science Progress, April, 191 3.) 



There is, I should imagine, no branch of knowledge in which 

 the intelligent reader is more likely to be misled than that which 

 we know as " heredity." In no other subject are there greater 

 divergences of opinion upon fundamental points among recog- 

 nised exponents, nor have differences of opinion in any case 

 been expressed with greater fanaticism and disregard or mis- 

 representation of the arguments and facts advanced by opponents. 

 I do not mean to imply that all exponents of views upon heredity 

 are guilty, but that such offences are very common. 



The study of heredity involves so many branches of knowledge 

 that it is not surprising that students in one branch often fail to 

 understand what those in another mean, owing to the very 

 different character and bearing of the facts dealt with. The 

 violent controversy between the Mendelians and Biometricians 

 is a case in point. To put it broadly, the Mendelians are dealing 

 with the individual, while the Biometricians are dealing with the 

 race. The Mendelians record facts connected with the trans- 

 mission of particular and chosen characters which are easily 

 observed, from individual to individual ; they show how these 

 particular characters behave in the offspring when individuals 

 differing with regard to them are crossed. The Biometricians, 

 on the other hand, deal with the behaviour of chosen characters 

 in a large number of individuals in successive generations. 

 They show to what extent, on the average, the characters of the 

 parents are inherited by the offspring and how the average 

 standard of a character may vary in a race. I do not see the 

 slightest reason to question the facts put forward by either 



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