METHODS AND RESILTS. 



A Note Regarding Variation in tlie Single Combs 

 of fowls. 



By RAYMOND PEARL. 



In the first number of the Mendel Journal, a copy of 

 which has just reached me, I find a number of pages 

 under the heading of " Variation in the Single Combs 

 of Fowls. Some Mendelian Comments," devoted to a 

 rather violent and caustic criticism of a recent paper* 

 by my wife and myself on this subject. Inasmuch 

 as " Ardent Mendelian," whoever that person may be, 

 in these " Mendelian Comments " gives an entirely 

 and absolutely incorrect statement of (a) the purpose 

 with which the paper he criticises was written, and the 

 problem with which it deals, and (6) my general 

 standpoint with reference to the problems of inherit- 

 ance, I feel bound to make the corrections which 

 stand in the present note. A failure to reply would, 

 I fear, be taken by the readers of this Journal to mean 

 that I really hold the opinions attributed to me by 

 " Ardent Mendelian." In this reply I must state at 

 the outstart that it is not my purpose to attempt to 

 embellish what I have to say with such a wealth of 

 rhetorical ornament as is displayed in the writing of 

 " Ardent Mendelian." If, as " Ardent Mendelian " would 

 I suppose contend, Mendelians are all right and bio- 

 metricians are all wrong in their views about inheritance, 

 I venture to think that the interested biological public is 

 rather more likely to be convinced of this fact by a plain 

 and clear statement of the reasons why it is true than it 

 is by the methods of sarcasm and ridicule which he 

 adopts. 



* Data on Variation in the Comb of^the Domestic Fowl. Biometrika. 

 Vol. VI. (not IV.) pp. 420-432. 1909. 



