xlii MUTATION, MENDELISM, ETC. 



produced until Mendel's extremely interesting discovery 

 became known, and was in its turn proclaimed by Bate- 

 son as the only hope of evolutionary salvation. Mendel 

 himself was evidently a modest as well as a great man, 

 and by no means inclined to enthrone his important 

 principle as the Juggernaut of Biological Science. It is 

 due to the followers of Mendel that the new deity 

 threatens to exercise a malignant influence on the study 

 of Nature. No man is likely to continue the labours of 

 investigation with enthusiasm and persistence when he 

 is convinced, or even half convinced, by the overween- 

 ing assurance of another that his subject is barren and 

 useless. If such converts were likely to be added to the 

 number of Mendelian investigators there would be some 

 compensating gain; but men cannot always turn to entirely 

 new lines of work, nor is the result usually satisfactory 

 when they attempt to do so after long years at very different 

 inquiries, pursued with very different methods. The 

 spirit of investigation is as the wind that bloweth where it 

 listeth. It may be possible to arrest the current of inquiry, 

 without the power of diverting it into a fresh direction. 



I should be sorry if the above remarks were considered 

 to imply any want of sympathy with the efforts of the 

 energetic and enthusiastic workers on Mendelian problems 

 at Cambridge. The subject and the work itself are de- 

 serving of the warmest appreciation. I am only taking 

 exception to the quite unnecessary depreciation of other 

 subjects and other workers. 



By a curious irony, the very department of biology that 

 more than any other has produced classical work at Cam- 

 bridge, the splendid subject of Embryology, is one of 

 those specially selected for depreciation. And here, too, 

 most harm is likely to be done ; for a great tradition is 

 one of the noblest and most fruitful incentives to research. 



