THE PROBLEMS OF HEREDITY AND TIH^Hi SOLUTION/' 



By W. Bateson, M. A., F. R. S. 



An exact detoriiiination of the laws of hci'cdit}' will probably work 

 more change in man's outlook on the world and in his power over 

 nature than any other advance in natural knowledge that can be 

 clearly foreseen. 



There is no doubt whatever that these laws ean l)e determined. In 

 comparison with the la])or that has l)een needed for other great discov- 

 eries we may even expect that the necessary etiort will be small. It is 

 rather remarkable that while in other branches of physiology such great 

 progress has of late been made, our knowledge of the phenomena of 

 heredity has increased but little; though that these phenomena consti- 

 tute the basis of !ill evolutionary science and the very central problem 

 of natural histoiy is admitted by all. Nor is this due to the special 

 ditficulty of such inquiries so much as to general neglect of the subject. 



It is in the hope of indu'-ing- others to follow these lines of investi- 

 gation that I take the prol)lems of heredity as the subject of this lec- 

 ture to the Royal Horticultural Society. 



No one has better opportunities of pursuing such work than iiorti- 

 culturists and stock breeders. They are daily witnesses of the phe- 

 nomena of heredity. Their success also depends largely on a 

 knowledge of its laws, and obviously every increase in that knowledge 

 is of direct and special importance to them. 



The want of systematic study of heredity is due chiefly to misappre- 

 hension. It is supposed that such- work requires a lifetime. But 

 though for adequate study of the complex phenomcMia of iidieritance 

 long periods of time must be necessary, yet in our present state of 



« Reprinted by permission of the author and the pul^Hsher from Mendel's Prin- 

 c-iples of Heredity, a Defense by W. Bateson, M. A., F. R. S., with a translation of 

 Mendel's original papers on hybridisation, Cambridge [England] : At the T^niver- 

 sity Press, 1902. 



^ The first half of this paper is reprinted, with additions and moditi cations, from the 

 Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, 1900, Vol. XXV, parts 1 and 2. Writ- 

 ten almost immediately after the rediscovery of Mendel, it will be seen to be 

 already in some measure out of date, but it may thus serve to show the relation of 

 the new conceptions to the old. (Author's footnote to title on page 1 of the 

 volume. ) 



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