COMBS OF FOWLS 193 



might be more than one such genotype in regard to 

 other characters than the base of the single comb, is, 

 it seems to me, no small point to the credit of our paper. 

 The piece of work here under discussion was, as has 

 been said, undertaken and carried out as a contribution 

 to the descriptive anatomy of the domestic fowl. It 

 is no more justly to be criticised for not being a Mendelian 

 investigation than is any text book of human anatomy. 

 It is my con\'iction that in spite of the lucubrations 

 of " Ardent Mendelian " there still remains in biology 

 room for the ideals and methods of careful and accurate 

 descriptive anatomy. 



(3) Finally I wish to state as clearl}' as possible, 

 so that there may be no room for misunderstanding, my 

 position regarding the general problems of inheritance. 

 I should not think of doing this, since my personal 

 point of view is of no particular interest to anybody 

 but myself, were it not for the fact that views are attri- 

 buted to me b}^ " Ardent Mendelian " which I do not 

 hold, and because he singles me out as an example 

 of a school of thought respecting inheritance with which, 

 as a matter of fact, I am not at all in agreement. My 

 position is simply this : I am thoroughly convinced 

 of the great usefulness in helping to solve biological 

 problems of the application of appropriate mathematical 

 methods. Being of this mind, I have endeavoured 

 so far as possible to perfect myself in the use of such 

 methods, inasmuch as it would seem the part of wisdom 

 to learn to use correctly am^ scientific tool which one is 

 to use at all. But the fact that I have used such mathe- 

 matical methods in my work should not imply in the 

 slightest degree, so far as I can see, that I agree with 

 any person's theoretical views regarding heredity. There 

 would seem to be as much justification to assume that 

 a person subscribed to the doctrine of the quadrille 

 of the centrosomes, for example, because he used a 

 microtome !* As a matter of fact my own study of 



* In the writer's opinion it is extremely unfortunate that the impression 

 should have become so prevalent among biologists that the use of biometric 

 methods implies per se a behef in any particular view of inheritance. 

 This iiea, one feels sure, has kept biometric methods from taking the place 

 in the biological armamentarium which they justly deserve to occupy. 



