164 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



also that these characters " offer better material for a 

 possible ' Mendelising ' than skin colour." For it to be 

 admitted that negro qualities may conceivably fit a 

 Mendelian theory, and that possibly " Mendelising " may 

 yet be found, is indeed a great admission from one Avho but 

 recently proclaimed " that it is too early to assert that 

 Mendehsm holds for man or even for any plant or animal."* 

 These sentences from Professor Pearson's note almost 

 read as though the study of his omti material had, in a 

 prescient mood, warned him that the forthcoming of 

 " favourable evidence " for Mendehsm is but a matter 

 of time, if, indeed, it is not already contained in his 

 present note. 



We will proceed to analyse this note with Mendelian 

 eyes. The information in it has been obtained. Professor 

 Pearson informs us, by communication " with a medical 

 man who has spent his whole life in the West Indies and 

 knows its people and their ways very intimately." The 

 method adopted by Professor Pearson in obtaining this 

 information was to put certain questions to his medical 

 correspondent. Now, as every barrister knows, questions 

 are of two kinds, those which lead and those which do 

 not. In some instances. Professor Pearson's questions 

 seem to us to be of the essential nature of leading questions 

 of a subtle kind. We do not, of course, for one moment 

 suggest that Professor Pearson desires to be unfair, 

 or that the nature of the question has in the smallest 

 degree influenced the answer. We accept the evidence 

 quite unreservedly. But we do wish to protest against 

 the imputation to Mendelians, direct or implied, of 

 assumptions and statements which they have never 

 uttered. For instance, in the second question to his 

 medical correspondent, Professor Pearson frames his 

 query thus: "(2) Mulatto ,< white gives a quadroon. 

 Is or is not the quadroon a blend ? Theory says that 

 the quadi'oon class should consist of half Vhites and half 

 mulattos." And, again, question 3 is put in a similar 

 way, thus : "' (3) Mulatto x negro. Is this a blend rather 

 darker than a mulatto or not ? Theory would say that 

 50 per cent, of the offspring were mulattoes and 50 per 



* Discussion at Royal Society of Medicine. Heredity and Disease. 

 London, 1909, p. 57. 



