ON THE STATISTICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 615 

 in his ' Materials for the Study of Variation,' a remark- 41. 



. i-i- -i MrBateson's 



able specimen of the historical treatment of the problem, historical 



treatment. 



But the aspect we are at present specially interested in 

 is the other one which, in the course of Mr Galton's 

 studies, has presented itself to him with increasing clear- 

 ness, namely, the bearing which the general laws of 

 averages and statistics have on the facts of inheritance. 

 Thus, in his second main contribution to the subject, 

 which appeared in 1889, twenty years after the earlier 

 work, the statistical problem comes out much more 

 clearly, and quite separated from the mechanical or the 

 historical one. The hypothesis of Pangenesis is retained 

 only as a general scheme which suggested " the idea 

 though not the phrase of particulate inheritance." It 

 was felt to be no longer necessary, for the purpose of 

 the problem, " to embarrass ourselves with any details of 

 theories of heredity beyond the fact that descent either 42. 

 was particulate or acted as if it were so." 1 And what ate "descent. 

 is meant by " particulate " (i.e., " bit by bit ") is illus- 

 trated in the following expressive manner : 2 " Many of 

 the modern buildings in Italy are historically known to 

 have been built out of the pillaged structures of older 

 days. Here we may observe a column or a lintel serving 

 the same purpose for a second time, and perhaps bearing 

 an inscription that testifies to its origin ; while as to the 

 other stones, though the mason may have chipped them 

 here and there and altered their shape a little, few if 

 any came direct from the quarry." " This simile gives a 

 rude though true idea of the exact meaning of Particulate 

 Inheritance namely, that each piece of the new structure 



1 'Natural Inheritance,' p. 193. 2 Ibid., p. 8. 



