182 SYMBIOGENESIS 



" Whether science will hereafter discover (a discovery which, 

 he says, he anticipates, without being able to defend the 

 opinion with positive conviction) that certain groups can by 

 peculiarities in their genetic physiology be declared to have a 

 prerogative quality justifying their recognition as species in 

 the old sense, and that the differences of others are of such a 

 subordinate degree that they may in contrast be termed 

 varieties, further genetic research alone can show." (Italics 

 mine.) The anticipation here expressed by the eminent 

 biologist can only allude to the discovery of values, such as I 

 have attempted to formulate on my theory of symbiogenesis. 

 What remained to be discovered was, precisely, the principle 

 underlying qualification (qualification that is in an evolu- 

 tionary sense). Obviously before we can duly determine and 

 classify the peculiarities of genetic physiology, we must 

 first have a clear recognition of the beginnings, foundations 

 and leading principles (including nutritional " amphimixis ") 

 of genetic physiology, and this, as we have realised, 

 necessitates many a step outside the province of (what is 

 generally considered as) pure genetics, and involves inquiries 

 into those very bio-economic regions which Prof. Bateson would 

 fain see abandoned as bare of any yields. It involves the 

 recognition of that "little more and how much it is" which 

 Prof. Bateson would fain contemn. The "little less " in these 

 important matters leads, in the case of Darwinism, almost to 

 an absolute denial of progress, of ethical continuity, of values, 

 of status, and of every form of design in Nature a kind of 

 chaos. " Too often in the past the facile formulas of natural 

 selection have been made use of to carry us lightly over the 

 surface of unsuspected depths that would richly have repaid 

 serious exploration " (Prof. E. B. Wilson). It leads, in the 

 case of Mendelism, as we have seen, to an inverted evolutionary 

 outlook as illustrated by the postulate of the " Ur-organismus," 

 the original and perfect " hold-all " of all qualities. Rightly, 

 so it appears to me, Prof. E. B. Wilson (Pres. Address, 

 Zoology, Americ. Assoc., 1914) demurs to the Mendelian inver- 



