GENETICS 151 



phenomena, comparable to those of the dissociation of matter 

 (radium !) which is the obverse of progressive transmutation 

 or integration. Thus we meet with "sports," "heroes," 

 " mutants " salta. 



Just as the dissociation of chemical elements throws light 

 on their genesis, so organic " dissociation " helps us to under- 

 stand organic integration by symbiogenesis. The phenomena 

 seem to be parallel throughout. The stimulations tending to 

 disruption are identical in Chemistry and Biology, i.e., faulty 

 association, due to the presence of impurities, showing that the 

 symbiogenesis is obstructed or disturbed. This I have already 

 pointed out in my previous writings. Failing these symbio- 

 genetic explanations, Mendelism is driven into the 

 Mutationists' camp. 



As to the origin of a positively new feature, Mendelism is 

 professedly quite in the dark. As Prof. R. C. Punnett says: 

 " It (the new feature) turns up suddenly, complete in itself, 

 thereafter it can be associated by crossing with other existing 

 characters so as to produce a gamut of new varieties." 



For the riddance of impure strains in subsequent genera- 

 tions, the normal safeguarding effects of the fertilisation 

 process are relied on since these re-assert themselves at the 

 first opportunity. But even the good services of the fertilisa- 

 tion process, together with general vitality, must eventually 

 be strained to breaking point if impure strains continue to be 

 poured into the racial composition. Fertilisation, under such 

 circumstances, though we try to cross certain otherwise 

 apparently well-established varieties with contrasting 

 "characters," can no longer yield results, not even (retro- 

 gressive) Mendelian or Mutant phenomena. Instead, we meet 

 with sterility and exhaustion. In other words, the limit of the 

 benevolence of the fertilisation process having been reached, 

 further hybridisation becomes impossible. 



Seeing that so many "characters" appear in a brusque 

 manner, apparently non-gradual and arbitrary, Mendelians 

 think they must adapt their argumentation anent evolution to 



