4 FACTORS IN VARIATION. 



the psyt'liological evolution of man himself, of the rich 

 development after birth of myelinated fibres in the brains 

 of human beings ? 



These structures have surely evolved through gain 

 and not by loss. How came about the adaptations of 

 specialised animals to exceptional environments I Did the 

 germ cells of the progenitors of the mammalia contain, 

 packed in inconceivable complexity, factors to account 

 for all the morphological variations which have arisen 

 within the order ? 



Professor Bateson smiles at the " teleological fustian '' 

 which clothed the theory of evolution in Victorian days, 

 but he has given us an inverted teleolog}' which works 

 backwards. Palaeontologists would need to turn their 

 tables of strata and of the march of life up-side-down to 

 bring nature into line Avith such views. 



In the same address. Professor Bateson says : — " We 

 go to Darwin for his incomparable collection of facts."' 

 And there he would draw the line. Recognising Bateson's 

 great ability and remembering the great amount of Avork 

 he has accompHshed, we go to Bateson for his " collection 

 of facts,"' but we cannot accept the views put forward, 

 tentatively, it is true, on his authority. It may be that 

 ■ the seed-pan and the incubator "" do not provide the 

 broad outlook which was gained by such men as Darwin, 

 Huxley and Wallace who found in the wide Avorld a 

 laboratory for study. 



Professor Dendy is surely nearer the truth when he 

 aays : — "" The fact that many new and apparently 

 permanent combinations of characters may arise through 

 hybridisation, and that the organisms thus produced have 

 all the attributes of what we call distinct species, does not 

 justify us in accepting the grotesque view — as it appears 

 to mo — that all species have arisen by crossing, or even 

 that the organism is entirely built up of separately trans- 

 missible unit characters."' He also adds : — " I think it 

 is a most significant fact that the only characters which 

 appear to be inherited in Mendelian fashion are 



