WILLIAM BATESON? 
By T. H. Morean, Columbia University 
William Bateson was born in 1861. He was the son of Rey. W. H. 
Bateson, D. D., master of St. Johns College, Cambridge. After 
Rugby School, he went to Cambridge, where he took first class hon- 
ors in both parts of the natural science tripos, receiving his degree 
in 1882. He was elected to a fellowship in St. Johns. 
“ Bateson’s span of life carried him through one of the most re- 
markable transition periods in the history of biology. In his earlier 
Cambridge days he experienced the full effects of the phylogenetic 
school of descriptive embryology of which Francis Balfour was the 
recognized leader in the English speaking world. Bateson’s three 
contributions to the embryology of Balanoglossus show how he re- 
acted to these influences.”? The materials for these studies were 
collected in this country in 1883. 
“We had seen an announcement in the Johns Hopkins University 
circular that Balanoglossus had been found at the marine station, 
then situated at Hampton, Va., and wrote to Brooks asking permis- 
sion to come to the station to work on this rare and extraordinary 
worm. ‘ Brooks sent me a cordial invitation to come over and try. 
Such leave was no little thing to give, for Balanoglossus must have 
been known to be one of the prizes of the station, but in professional 
generosity Brooks was royal and lavish.’ 
“The friendly relation between Brooks and his students that had 
so much to do with his influence over them was soon established with 
Bateson. At the time Brooks was absorbed in writing his treatise 
on heredity. Bateson wrote later (1910): ‘For myself, I know it 
was through Brooks that I first came to realize the problems which 
for years have been my chief interest and concern. * * * Varia- 
tion and heredity with us had stood as axioms. For Brooks they 
were problems. As he talked of them the insistence of these prob- 
lems became imminent and impressive.’ 
1 This biography is in large part compiled from an article in Science (Vol. LXIII, May 
28, 1926) ; from another in Nature (Vol. 117, Feb. 27, 1926) ; from the Eagle, St. Johns 
College (Vol. XLIV, 1926); and from a forthcoming obituary in the proceedings of the 
Linnean Society. 
Proceedings of the Linnean Society. 
521 
