to PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



.Mr. William Hic'kat.s»)u Dykes, M.A.(()xoii.), Jj. is L. (Paris), 

 was proposed as a Fellow. 



The following were elected Fellows : — Prof. 8aliay Ram 13ose, 

 M.A.(Caleutta), Tribhawaii Nath ^iJhaii, L)r. Thomas liobertsou 

 Sim, Frank lleury Tavlor, F.E.S., and William Kuslilon Parker, 

 M.A., iM.JD.(Caiitab.).' 



A paper entitled " On the E.xistence of Two Fiimlamentally 

 Different 'J'ypes of Characters in Organisms " was read by Dr. li. 

 KuGGLES Itatks, F.L.IS., ot wliicli the following is an abstract : — 



The experimentalist point of vie\\- regarding evolution, resulting 

 from the work in mutation and Mendelism, is frankly antagonistic 

 to the views of palreontologists, anatomists, and others w ho deal 

 with orthogenesis and the inheritance of acquired characters. 1 

 wish to show that while these two factors bear entirely difierent 

 relations to evolutionary clianges, both are necessary to account 

 for evolution as it has taken place. 



The conclusion is reached that higher organisms exiiibit two 

 contrasted types of characters, which differ tuudamentally (1) in 

 llieir manner of origin, (2) in tlieir relation to the structni-e of 

 the organism, (o) in their relation to such phenomena as 

 recapitulation, ada])tation, and inheritance, (4) in their relation 

 to geographic distribution. 



To the tirst category belong cell-ciiai'acters, which arise as 

 imitations, are represented in every cell of the individual, and are 

 usually inherited as distinct entities. Since they are borne in the 

 nuclei, it is proposed to call them karyogenetic characters. To 

 the second category belong organismal ciiaracters, which arise 

 gradually through impact of the environment or through ortho- 

 genetic changes, may modify only localized portions of the life- 

 cycle, and may not be incor|iorated in the germ-plasm from the 

 tirst. They may imply an increase or, in the gamerophytes of 

 plants, a shortening in length of the life-cycle. 



The development of organismal characters is to be explained in 

 connection with the principle of recapitulation. Embryonic re- 

 capitulation has arisen in connection with the adaptation of the 

 organism to a new set of conditions, and implies the inheritance 

 of acquired characters. Orthogenetic recapitulation, as in the 

 Juvenal plumage of birds, implies a change which is germinal in 

 oi'igin but added terminally to the life-cycle. 



The antithetic alternation of generations in plants, implying 

 the gradual development of the sporophyte by its intercalation 

 between two gametophyte generations, is the same jjrocess as the 

 development of orthogenetic recapitulatory characters. Tho homo- 

 logous alternation in certain Algtc has probably arisen through 

 a sudden change which is essentially mutational. 



The cell theory of mutations leads to the concept of the species 



