100 HEREDITY AND SEX 



In a word, he assumes that assortment is not confined 

 to the final stages in the ripening of the germ-cells, 

 but may take place at any time in the germ-tract. 

 It seems to me, however, if the results can be brought 

 into line with the known changes that take place 

 in the germ-cells at the time when the maternal and 

 paternal chromosome unite, that we have not only 

 a simpler method of dealing with these questions, 

 but it is one that rests on a mechanism that can be 

 studied by actual observation. Moreover, on purely 

 a priori grounds the assumptions that I have made seem 

 much simpler and more tangible than the assumptions 

 of ''reduplication" to which Bateson resorts. 



But leaving these more theoretical matters aside, 

 the evidence from a study of sex-linked characters shows 

 in the clearest manner that they, while following Men- 

 del's principle of segregation, are also undeniably asso- 

 ciated with the mechanism of sex. There is little 

 doubt that sex itself is inherited in much the same 

 way, since we can explain both in terms of the same 

 mechanism. This mechanism is the behavior of the 

 chromosomes at the time of the formation of the germ- 

 cells. 



