SCOPE OF GENETICS 47 



a definite, physiological event, the addition or 

 omission of one or more definite elements; 

 and Reversion as that particular addition or 

 subtraction which brings the total of the 

 elements back to something it had been 

 before in the history of the race. 



The time for discussion of Evolution as 

 a problem at large is closed. We face that 

 problem now as one soluble by minute, critical 

 analysis. Lord Acton in his inaugural lecture 

 said that in the study of history we are at the 

 beginning of the documentary age. No one 

 will charge me with disrespect to the great 

 name we commemorate this year, if I apply 

 those words to the history of Evolution: 

 Darwin, it was, who first showed us that the 

 species have a history that can be read at all. 

 If in the new reading of that history, there 

 be found departures from the text laid down 

 in his first recension, it is not to his fearless 

 spirit that they will bring dismay. 



