U2 INHERITANCE 



being better qualified than any equally well 

 placed competitor to gain a lodgment. Thus the 

 step by step development of the embryo cannot fail 

 to be influenced by an incalculable number of small 

 and most unknown circumstances." 



These views are boldly expressed but they are 

 also distinctly crude, and the metaphor, which Mr. 

 Gallon is dangerously fond of using, rather confuses 

 than aids the explanation. Of more real value are 

 his attempts to determine the numerical ratio in 

 which characters, such as height, colour of eyes, 

 etc., tend to be transmitted to successive gener- 

 ations. On this point Mr. Galton comes to the 

 following very definite and important conclusions : 

 "The average contributions of each separate 

 ancestor to the heritage of the child were deter- 

 mined apparently within narrow limits, for a 

 couple of generations at least. The results proved 

 to be very simple ; they assign an average of one 

 quarter from each parent, and one-sixteenth from 

 each grandparent. According to this geometrical scale 

 continued indefinitely backwards, the total heritage 

 of the child would be accounted for." Results of 

 this kind are of the greatest possible value, and open 

 up a most promising field for further enquiry. 



I turn now to a consideration of the important 

 series of researches by Professor Weismann, which 

 have of late years attracted so much attention. 

 These are of especial interest to microscopists, 

 because the data on which Prof. Weismann bases 

 his arguments are obtained from a careful study, 

 with the most refined histological methods, of the 



