40 MENDELISM AND 



that modifications may be caused during develop- 

 ment in the uterus, as, for example, birth-marks on 

 the skin, and these would not be due to peculiarities 

 in the constitution of the ovum. Professor Karl 

 Pearson and other devotees of the cult of Eugenics 

 have been lately impressing on the public by 

 pamphlets, lectures, and addresses the great im- 

 portance of nature as compared with nurture, 

 maintaining that the latter is powerless to counteract 

 either the good or bad qualities of the former, and 

 that the effects of nurture are not transmitted to the 

 next generation. 



We recognise that the characters of varieties of 

 flowers, fruits, and domesticated animals are not 

 to be produced by any particular mode of treatment. 

 We see the various kinds of orchids or carnations 

 in the same greenhouse, of sweet peas and roses in 

 the same garden. We go to a show and see the 

 extraordinary variety of breeds of pigeons, rabbits, 

 or fowls, and we know that these cannot be produced 

 by treating the progeny of individuals of one kind 

 in special ways, but are the progeny of parents of 

 the same various races. If we want fowls of a 

 particular breed we obtain eggs of that breed and 

 hatch them with the certainty born of experience 

 that we shall obtain chickens of that breed which 

 will develop the colour, comb, size, and qualities 

 proper to it. Similarly, in nature we recognise that 

 the ' characters ' of species or varieties are not 

 due to circumstances acting on the individual during 

 its development, but to the properties of the ova 

 or seeds from which the individuals were developed. 



Formerly we regarded these congenital or innate 

 characters as derived from the parents or inherited, 



