GENETICS 155 



that genuine symbiosis is the antidote of disease, and, further, 

 that in nature everything depends on the degrees of relatedness 

 and on values. 



It also shows, again, that ancestral dynamics consisted 

 primarily of symbiotics, and that frequently the advent of 

 " partial luxury " changed a one-time wholesome, valuable 

 and symbiotic relation into an unwholesome and parasitic one. 

 That such an account of the arrival of anti-biotics represents 

 the correct history of the transformation implied, seems to be 

 borne out by the established facts of the frequent degeneration 

 of recognised cases of symbiosis into parasitism so soon as the 

 symbiosis ceases, and, further, by the fact that (as pointed out 

 by G. Massee in the August number, 1910, of the Naturalist} 

 a case of rampant parasitism may easily be seen to arise from a 

 milder form, as in the case of certain fungi that are only known 

 as pure saprophytes, but can by a "judicious" (!) course of 

 training be taught to become rampant parasites. 



That these qualitative explanations are essential may now 

 also be seen in their application to the case of Mendelian or 

 alternative inheritance, as presented by Mr. Ch. Walker, 

 D.Sc., in his article on " The Interpretation of Factors in the 

 Study of Heredity." (Science Progress, Oct., 1913.) 



"Are all characters inherited in this alternative manner?" 

 he asks, and he quotes the view of Prof. Davenport (1906) that 

 " very frequently, if not always, the 'character' that has once 

 been crossed has been affected by its opposite with which it was 

 mated and whose place it has taken in the hybrid. It may be 

 extracted therefrom to use in a new combination, but it will be 

 found altered. This we have found to be true for nearly every 

 character sufficiently studied." 



In any case, whether all " characters " are inherited in the 

 Mendelian manner or not, we thus have a confirmation of the 

 fact that hybridising two gametes, over and above a mere 

 " chemical" union, produces bio-dynamic effects such as those 

 that I have classed as symbiogenetic or "alchemical," i.e., 

 they are productive of slow transformation (changes in the 



