2 FACTOli.S IN VARIATION. 



Since our last annual meeting Sir William MacGregor^ 

 G.C.M.G., who as Governor of Queensland, was Patron of 

 this Society from 1910 tol914, has passed away. The name 

 of this distinguished administrator will alwaj's be closely 

 associated with the ethnology and the avifauna of Papua, 

 and his collections, housed in the Queensland Museum, 

 are a remarkable mem'orial to his energy and enthusiasm. 



An ex-member in the person of Thomas Parker, F.G.S., 

 died during the year. Tn 1914, Mr. Parker contributed tw<v 

 short papers on Underground Waters to oiu- Proceedings. 



FACTORS IN VARIATION. 



The above title requires an immediate qualification. 

 An adequate exposition of the facts and theories which 

 may be associated \\ith a study of variation Avould be 

 beyond the powers of any one individual, even though 

 he were given the three lives which Fredk. Bond* desired 

 for the fruition of a naturalist's work. No such 

 exposition will be attempted in this address. My task is 

 to record certain notes on evolution which have accumu- 

 lated during many years of study, supplementing those 

 given in a previous paperf, and to point out that we have 

 now definite knowledge of many of the factors which cause 

 variation. 



The facts of organic evolution are undeniable. Even 

 in the days of Darwin they formed an incontrovertible 

 array. Since that time innumerable supplementary 

 observations have been tabulated by biological workers. 

 No thinking, qualified person can ignore the fact that 

 organisms have changed and are changing, and this is all 

 that evolution implies when reduced to its simplest terms. 

 But when we come to analyse the subsidiary theories 

 associated with these facts, we find that the supposedly 

 serene atmosphere of science is perturbed by violent 

 controversies. 



Cifcumspice ! Compare the views of the Mendelians, 

 the Lamarckians, the Darwinians and neo-Darwinians, 

 the Weismannians, the transformists and the mutationists, 



*Qu()tecl in "The Entomologist," XXII., 1889, p. 260. 

 tLongman: Proc. Roy. Soc. Q'ld., XXVI., 1914 



