EVOLUTION THE MASTER-KEY 



There are many facts which the mutation theory 

 explains. What, for instance, could be more 

 puzzling than the unquestioned fact that haemo- 

 philia, or the "bleeding - disease," is constantly 

 transmitted by men to their sons, not to their 

 daughters, but through their daughters to their 

 grandsons; but not their granddaughters? In 

 other words, the males inherit, suffer and trans- 

 mit; the females inherit and transmit, but do not 

 suffer! And now it seems that the abb with his 

 peas gave us the key to this forty years ago. It 

 becomes intelligible if we conceive that certain 

 characters are linked in the gametes. For instance, 

 the bleeding character may be linked with the 

 "maleness" character; the two are segregated to- 

 gether; when one appears both appear; when one 

 is latent, as in the case of the female, so is the other. 



Mendelism is in its infancy; but it is already 

 potent for good. We could "exterminate the 

 simpler vices" if we pleased; and Mr. Galton's 

 Eugenics 1 is not a dream. Some day the race will 

 undoubtedly realize that education in all its forms 

 is but the "giving or withholding of opportunity," 

 and then will face the root problem in earnest. 

 Meanwhile, to quote Professor Bateson, "So long 

 as, in our actual laws of breeding, superstition re- 

 mains the guide of nations, rising ever fresh and 

 unhurt from the assaults of knowledge, there is 

 nothing to hope or to fear from these sciences." 



1 See chapter xiii. 



