THEORIES IN PRACTICE 353 



tionary and as scouting the essential principles 

 that I ardently espoused during a period of at 

 least sixteen years subsequent to the death of 

 Mendel, during which they had no other 

 champion. 



Wliat I have deprecated, however, in recent 

 years, is the overenthusiasm of certain alleged 

 followers of Mendel, who have entertained what 

 I conceived to be a misapprehension as to the 

 real significance of "unit characters," and who, 

 misguided by a narrow range of experiments, 

 and lacking the breadth of view that comes with 

 wider experience, have supposed that all herit- 

 able characters might be classified as fixed and 

 unvarying entities that are transmitted in 

 accordance with the Mendelian formula. 



Fortunately, many former holders of this 

 biased and inadequate view have seen its insuffi- 

 ciency, and already there is a tendency to react 

 from it, evidenced in the WTitings of some of the 

 leading Mendelians; and, coupled with this, the 

 tendency to take a broader view of heredity and 

 to understand that there are coimtless heritable 

 characters that do not JMendelize in any tangible 

 or demonstrable way; that "unit characters" are 

 themselves made up of subordinated characters; 

 that new "unit characters" from time to time 

 appear, whereas old ones that at one time Men- 



V«l. 7 — Bur. Ii 



