BEFORE DARWIN AND AFTER. 459 



ing between the two ancestors (the so-called 

 alternative inheritance) ; also there is the sep- 

 aration or disociation of characters in the 

 germ-cell, each of which can be transmitted 

 (sometimes named unit-characters). In this 

 case there is a new approach to that primal 

 act of Life, namely, living individuation ; each 

 characteristic of the pea is individuated in the 

 genetic cell and asserts itself sooner or later. 

 What constitutes or causes these unit-charac- 

 ters is not known ; some say they spring from 

 a chemical, others from a mechanical change 

 at the source. But what we are to grasp first is 

 the Mendelian round of heredity : dominance, 

 recession, recurrence. The last term involves 

 the persistence of the unit-character; though 

 it may be for a time only potential, it can be- 

 come real, doubtless suddenly so (as in the 

 examples of mutation given by De Vries). 



Mendel continued his experimentation on 

 this double offspring of the hybrid ; he found 

 that each side afterward bred its own kind, 

 yet with some exceptions. Moreover, not a 

 little depends on what characteristic is select- 

 ed for trial color, shape, stalk, seed ; etc. All 

 qualities are not always transmitted alike. It 

 is a significant fact that though Mendel's re- 

 sults were first communicated to the Briinn 

 Academy of Science in 1865 and published the 

 following year, they were without the least 



