1 68 MENDELISM CHAP. 



gamete in the process that is our criterion of what 

 is and what is not heredity. 



Better hygiene and better education, then, are 

 good for the zygote, because they help him to make 

 the fullest use of his inherent qualities. But the 

 qualities themselves remain unchanged in so far as 

 the gamete is concerned, since the gamete pays no 

 heed to the intellectual development of the zygote 

 in whom he happens to dwell. Nevertheless, upon 

 the gamete depend those inherent faculties which 

 enable the zygote to profit by his opportunities, and, 

 unless the zygote has received them from the gamete, 

 the advantages of education are of little worth. If 

 we are bent upon producing a permanent betterment 

 that shall be independent of external circumstances, 

 if we wish the national stock to become inherently 

 more vigorous in mind and body, more free from 

 congenital physical defect and feeble mentality, better 

 able to assimilate and act upon the stores of know- 

 ledge which have been accumulated through the 

 centuries, then it is the gamete that we must con- 

 sult. The saving grace is with the gamete, and 

 with the gamete alone. 



People generally look upon the human species as 

 having two kinds of individuals, males and females, 

 and it is for them that the sociologists and legislators 

 frame their schemes. This, however, is but an im- 

 perfect view to take of ourselves. In reality we are 

 of four kinds, male zygotes and female zygotes, large 

 gametes and small gametes, and heredity is the link 

 that binds us together. If our lives were like those 

 of the starfish or the sea-urchin, we should probably 

 have realised this sooner. For the gametes of these 





