HEREDITY AND GERMINAL CONTINUITY 319 



of alternative inheritance will rank as one of the greatest 

 discoveries in the study of heredity. The fact that in cross- 

 breeding the parental qualities are not blended, but that they 

 retain their individuality in the offspring, has many possible 

 practical applications both in horticulture and in the breed- 

 ing of animals. The germ-cells of the hybrids have the domi- 

 nant and the recessive characters about equally divided; this 

 will appear in the progeny of the second generation, and the 

 races, when once separated, may be made to breed true. 



Mendel's name was not recognized as a prominent one 

 in the annals of biological history until the re-discovery of his 

 law in 1900; but now he is accorded high rank. 



Galton. — Francis Galton, by directing attention to the 

 inheritance of individual characters made the subject of 

 heredity manageable. Previously, hereditary traits had been 

 considered in their entirety, and the resemblances and differ- 

 ences of parents and their offspring had been averaged. 

 This method was too diffuse, since no one could distinguish 

 sharply among the multiplicity of characters, and it was 

 a great forward step when Galton began to study hereditary 

 characters separately. "At the same time that Galton was 

 thus laying the foundation for a scientific study of heredity 

 by dealing with characters separately, another and even 

 greater student of heredity, Gregor Mendel, was doing the 

 same thing in his experiments with garden peas. But inas- 

 much as Mendel's work remained practically unknown for 

 many years, Galton has been rightly recognized as the founder 

 of the scientific study of heredity" (Conklin, 1915). 



Galton, 1822-1911 (Fig. 96), was the grandson of Doctor 

 Erasmus Darwin and the half cousin of Charles. After pub- 

 lishing books on his travels in Africa, he began the experi- 

 mental study of heredity and, in 187 1, he read before the 

 Royal Society of London a paper on Pangenesis, in which he 

 departed from that theory as developed by Darwin. The 



