24 MODES OF RESEARCH IN GENETICS 



perceive this fact. Thus Spillman ^ after pointing 

 out that the facts of Mendelism can no longer 

 be justly, or even decently, disputed, goes on 

 to say {loc. cit., p. 765) : "The real trouble is not 

 with the facts. It is with the interpretation of 

 these facts. Just at present we have more facts 

 of a certain kind than we know what to do with. 

 We need some one to put meaning into these facts. 

 We are in the position of a man lost in the wilder- 

 ness. What he needs to find is a road. It does 

 not make so much difference where this road shall 

 lead, for all roads lead to each other. If he can 

 find any road, it will lead him to where he can 

 find people, and these can point out other roads 

 leading more nearly in the direction he wants to 

 go. 



"In genetic investigations we need theories that 

 will suggest lines of investigation that will be 

 fruitful of results — that will lead, not to more 

 facts of the kind we already have, but to new 

 kinds of facts that will throw light on the subject 

 from a new angle." 



3. The Cytological. 



In the field of genetics cytology is practically 

 concerned with a single phase of the problem 

 of heredity, namely gametogenesis {B of our initial 

 analysis) and, to a somewhat smaller degree, with 

 the initial stages of somatogenesis and the fertiliza- 



1 Spillman, W. J. "The Present Status of the Genetic Problem." 

 Science, N. S., Vol. XXXV, pp. 757-767, 1911. 



^. C. State College 



