VARIOUS GROUPINGS OF INDIVIDUALS 6 





Forms which have been shown by human observa- 

 tion to be descended from common ancestors or from 

 a common parthenogenetic or self-fertiHzing ancestor. 

 Such groups may be called Synepigonic (ct-lJ^, together ; 

 iirtyovos, descendant). Breeding from common parents 

 or from a common parthenogenetic or self-fertilizing 

 parent may be spoken of as Epigony or the production 

 of Epigonic evidence.^ 



I first made use of it in the Presidential Address to the Entomological 

 Society, delivered Jan. 20, 1904, but it was not published until the six- 

 teenth of the following March, the date of issue, printed upon the cover of 

 Part V of the Transactions for 1903. Professor Hartog first published 

 Syngamy in the number of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science 

 for March, 1904. The precise date of publication is not given, but the 

 publishers, Messrs. J. and A. Churchill, have courteously informed me that 

 copies did not leave their office until April 12. Professor Hartog's 

 article is entitled Some Problems of Reproduction, — //, and is to be 

 found in New Sen vol. xlvii, 1903-4, p. 583, of the Quarterly Journal. 

 The second part B. An Essay ofi Fertilizatio?i (pp. 590-605) begins 

 with an allusion to the discussion at Southport which was opened by 

 the author, on very short notice, by the invitation of Professor Hickson, 

 President of Section D. * The following pages,' Professor Hartog con- 

 tinues, * represent far more closely what I would have wished to say than 

 what I actually said.' On p. 595 the w^ord is introduced as follows : — 

 * ... I venture to propose the term " Syngamy " to replace " fertilisation," 

 in its modern restricted sense . . . ' I have now given the history of this 

 strange and unfortunate coincidence, and desire to express my regret that 

 Professor Hartog, who made use of the word at the earlier date, should 

 lose priority because of the later publication. But if such technical rules 

 exist and if they are applicable to scientific terms of this class, I do not 

 see hosv it is possible to avoid enforcing them. It would be extremely 

 inconvenient to use the same term for ideas so closely related and yet 

 so utterly different as Professor Hartog's and mine. Furthermore, there 

 is a word as was suggested to me by Professor Lankester, which seems 

 almost to coin itself for Professor Hartog's purpose. When the two 

 gametes have united in ' fertilization ' their product is known as the 

 * zygote '. Thus Professor Hartog in his summary on p. 605 speaks 

 of ' the cell freshly produced by syngamy (the zygote) '. It is obvious 

 that Zygosis (^vycoo-tf) is in every way a most convenient term for the fusion 

 of gametes. There is also the term A7nphimixis introduced by Professor 

 Weismann in 1891, but this term really expresses a theory as to the 

 significance of gametic fusion rather than the fact of the fusion itself. 

 (Weismann, Essays upon Heredity, vol. ii, p. loi, Oxford, 1892). 



^ My friend, Mr. Arthur Sidgwick, has kindly helped me by suggesting 

 the appropriate Greek words. The use of c7rtyoi/os I owe to my friends 

 Dr. Arthur Evans, F.R.S., and Dr. R. W. Macan. The adjectival ter- 



