196 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



that none of the imputed statements were written by 

 us. We were extremely careful, in all essential points, 

 not to write our own interpretations of Dr. Pearl's 

 utterances, but to quote them fully and without 

 modification. 



Wlien Dr. Pearl accuses us of " stating that the 

 objects of his investigation were (1) to answer the one 

 question as to whether single combs or their various 

 grades breed true ; (2) to determine whether these 

 different varieties of single comb may be hereditarily 

 transmitted in accordance with Mendelian principles ; 

 and (3) to cast doubt upon Mendelian conclusions," 

 he is clearly under a misimpression as to the object of our 

 criticism. What was stated was this* : " The authors have 

 propounded a number of questions, but the central thesis 

 turns upon the one question as to whether single combs or 

 their various grades breed true." This is quite a different 

 thing to asserting that these questions were the objects 

 of his investigation. 



Now did Dr. Pearl propound these questions or 

 not ? If we turn either to his origmal article in 

 " Biometrika " or to his reply, we shall find the answer. 

 We may quote his statement verbatim. " All ' single ' 

 combs are put together in one category, all pea combs^ 

 in another. But nothing is more certain than that all 

 single combs are not alike in respect to any feature 

 whatsoever, even including their singleness. f How much 

 and in what way do they vary ? Do the variants within 

 the category Mendelize^ ? Are all variants exactly 

 equivalent in crossmg with other categories ? " In 

 slightly different words, f;]: these are precisely the questions 

 which we said Dr. Pearl had propounded in his- 

 paper, and it was not asserted that they were the objects 

 of his investigation. 



Let us come to what we actually did say was the object 

 of his investigation. Since this was the crucial point 

 around which the criticism centred, our invariable rule 



* MendelJournal, No. 1, October, 1909, p. 183, fourth line from the 

 beginning of the article. 



t This is only another way of stating that single combs do not breed 

 true. 



% This is only another way of asking whether the various grades ol 

 single comb breed true, and whether they are transmitted according ta 

 Mendelian principles. 



