442 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Summary 



The principles of heredity established by Mendel are almost as im- 

 portant for biology as the atomic theory of Dalton is for chemistry. 

 By means of these principles particular dissociations and recombina- 

 tions of characters can be made with almost the same certainty as par- 

 ticular dissociations and recombinations of atoms can be made in chem- 

 ical reactions. By means of these principles the hereditary constitution 

 of organisms can be analyzed and the real resemblances and differences 

 of various organisms determined. By means of these principles the 

 once mysterious and apparently capricious phenomena of prepotency, 

 atavism and reversion, find a satisfactory explanation. 



Before the establishment of Mendel's principles, heredity was, as 

 Balzac said, "a maze in which science loses itself." Much still re- 

 mains to be discovered about inheritance, but the principles of Mendel 

 have served as an Ariadne thread to guide science through this maze 

 of apparent contradictions and exceptions in which it was formerly lost. 



