372 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 



that " breeding true " has arisen secondarily as a restriction; ancT 

 Marrett says — " We cannot but think that the secret of variability- 

 lies yet deeper; in the very nature of the living organism itself. 

 It has been a Proteus from the first; chaiigefulness is its most- 

 abiding quality; in short, the essence of the creature is its innate 

 creativeness." 



One thing more has to be mentioned with respect to heredity. 

 Gregor Mendel, a Silesian monk, in 1865, communicated to a 

 Briinu scientific society a paj3er, which was forgotten till 1900, 

 when it was discovered by others who had reached practically the 

 same conclusions as Mendel had done. He had experimented with 

 plants and animals in respect to heredity qualities. For instances- 

 he crossed tall peas with dwarf peas, and found that the progeny 

 were all tall, i.e., showed the " dominant " character. When the 

 dwarf, i.e., those showing the "recessive" character were self- 

 fertilized, the progeny were all dwarfs, and all these bred only 

 dwarfs. . But v/lien the tails of this generation were self-fertilized, 

 the progeny consisted of one-third which produced tails only, and 

 two-thirds which produced 75 per cent, tails and 25 per cent, 

 dwarfs. Similar experiments have been carried on with other" 

 plants and with animals. The general result, so far, gives pro- 

 mise that a comprehensive study of a certain number of generations 

 will evolve principles of use in practical breeding. For example^ 

 aif enumeration was made of over 2,000 pei'sons, descendants of 

 u Frenchman (born 1637), who suffered from night-blindness. 

 This blindness was " dominant " over the normal condition, which 

 was "recessive." The interesting fact is that no normal member 

 who married another normal individual, either in or outside of 

 the family, ever begat jjrogeny who suffered from the disease. 



The subject of Mendelism in reference to the inheritance of 

 mutations has a most important bearing on evolution, and this 

 fruitful field is being assiduously cultivated. 



There are some other points of minor importance connected with 

 this subject of heredity, such as atavism and telegony, which, 

 however interesting, are not of so much practical importance to us- 

 in our present discussion. 



All this, so far, refers to Anthropology generally, and the 

 recent advances that have acquired a practical value in the study 

 of man, or in man's endeavour to make nature minister to hi.s 

 necessities, his luxuries, or his hajipiness. The duty of deciding 

 what general or technical subject should be selected as matter of" 

 an address to this Section has weiglied heavily on me. This was 

 due to the plethora of interesting facts, newly evolved principles,, 

 new applications of theories, suggestive speculations, and the exist- 

 ence of much knowledge that could not hitherto be brought to 

 bear on practical life. During the past six months I have 



