450 Note on Mr. Bateson's Paper, "Heredity, Differentiation," &c. 



" Note on Mr. Bateson's Paper, ' Heredity, Differentiation, and 

 other Conceptions of Biology : a Consideration of Professor 

 Karl Pearson's Paper " On the Principle of Homotyposis." ' 

 ' By KARL PEARSON, F.R.S. Keceived and Eead February 20, 



1902. 



A paper under the above title by Mr. W. Bateson was read on 

 February 14, 1901, and appears on pp. 193 205 of the Society's 

 ' Proceedings,' vol. 69. It naturally calls for a reply from me, for 

 Mr. Bateson's criticism attacks the fundamental ideas at the basis of 

 the long series of papers on " The Mathematical Theory of Evolution " 

 which have been contributed by me to the ' Transactions ' and ' Pro- 

 ceedings ' during the last eight years. My reply must therefore not 

 only be lengthy, but discuss the validity of the opposed terms and 

 definitions used by the school of evolutionists of which Mr. Bateson is 

 one of the most noteworthy representatives. Naturally, Mr. Bateson 

 will want a rejoinder, and this might require a counter-rejoinder. 

 Somewhere, however, the controversy must be ended, or its venue 

 changed. Without questioning the right of Mr. Bateson to choose 

 the 'Proceedings' of the Society for the publication of his adverse 

 criticisms, I must state my own individual opinion that a full discus- 

 sion of this matter must be long and argumentative, because it goes to 

 the foundation of more than one hypothesis warmly advocated by this 

 or that school of biologists. 



I believe that discussions of this kind, highly controversial in 

 character, however much they tend to clear up scientific ideas and 

 enforce rigidity in use of terms, are not contributions to original 

 knowledge, and so are far better carried on elsewhere than in the 

 publications of the Societjr. For this reason, I propose to transfer my 

 reply to Mr. Bateson's criticism to another place. I hope this brief 

 note may explain to Fellows of the Society that it is through no 

 discourtesy that I animadvert elsewhere on the interesting points 

 which Mr. Bateson has recently brought to their notice. 



