SYMBIONTICISM IN RELATION TO HEREDITY 121 



tion studies. What evidence is there to assume that new 

 genes are not acquired in evolution? The basis for this 

 assumption apparently, has rested on the conception that 

 the "mechanism of heredity is the mechanism of evolution." 

 Our conceptions in any field of intellectual and scientific 

 endeavor are based upon the analysis of conditions so far 

 as theij have been made. When more phenomena are dis- 

 covered, new points of view enter into our speculative 

 analyses, and it may become necessary to alter our pre- 

 vious conceptions. It is evident that the modern concep- 

 tions of genes were justified on the evidence that had 

 accumulated. There was no evidence at hand to indicate 

 that "new genes" were acquired in phylogenetic develop- 

 ment. A mechanism whereby new genes might be acquired 

 had not been indicated by cytological researches. Only 

 one alternative remained, and that was to assume that life 

 originated as a "tremendously complex molecule, capable 

 of sphtting up into a vast number of simpler molecules," 

 or in other words, that the amoeba contains the same 

 genes that are present in man. On the basis of the new 

 point of view that is associated with Symbionticism, we 

 are forced to the conclusion that new genes must be acquired 

 in organic evolution. This conception does not alter our 

 ideas as to the behavior of genes in heredity, but it intro- 

 duces a "new" factor in the conception of organic evolu- 

 tion. This new point of view, furthermore, displaces 

 hypotheses that are antagonistic to the general and broader 

 principle embodied in the theory of organic evolution, 

 namely, that evolution consists of ever-increasing accre- 

 tions resulting in greater complexity of structure as well 

 as of function. It is logical to assume that there have been 

 ever-increasing additions to organisms during organic 

 evolution. These "additions" must have come from the 

 outside, and represent tme accretions which are responsible 

 for the origin of species. 



