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COOK 



Prepotency, on the other hand, has reference to the results of 

 completed conjugation, as represented in gametes. Characters 

 which secure a stronger or more general expression in the new 

 gametes are called prepotent ^ those which tend to decline or to 

 disappear may be called subpoient. Characters which have 

 equal polarity, so that they each secure an unmodified repre- 

 sentation in behalf of the gametes may be called cquipotetit. 

 If these polarities show equal strength in the conjugate relation, 

 so that half of the conjugate organisms also represent each of 

 the divergent characters, we would have a complete case of 

 equipolar inheritance. 



Characters which are transmitted without expression-polarity, 

 either in conjugates or in gametes, are called latent. An abey- 

 ant or recessive character fails of expression only when joined 

 with a dominant gamete polarized toward the expression of 

 another character, but a latent character does not come to ex- 

 pression even when two gametes are of the same kind, though 

 it may still reappear many generations afterward as in atavism 

 and reversion. Latency might be described as character-abey- 

 ance in gametes. As a character represented in one of a pair 

 of conjugate gametes may fail to secure expression in the con- 

 jugate organism, so the power of bringing a certain character 

 to expression may remain latent in a gamete, as long as the 

 polarity of expression continues to be directed toward another 

 character. Just as the transmission of a character through a 

 conjugate organism has no necessary relation to its expression, 

 so the transmission of a character by a gamete has no necessary 

 connection with a polarity or adjustment toward the expression 

 of the character. 



PROBLEMS OF TRANSMISSION AND EXPRESSION. 



A curiously vivid analogy between the expression of charac- 

 ters and the expression of ideas is worthy of note at this point. 

 A suggestive expression often enforces the complete logical 

 elaboration of an idea, even in the face of contradictory facts. 

 It is commonly supposed that the phenomena of alternative 

 expression of divergent parental characters remained entirely 

 unconsidered in the interval between the publication of Mendel's 



