70 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



either of the two packs, but so as to make up one complete 

 pack. Turning then to the germ cells, each of these possesses 

 the duplicated set, and later on, at the so-called ' reduction,' 

 i.e., at the final division of the oogonia into oocytes, and of 

 the spermatogonia into spermatocytes, prior to the formation 

 of conjugating cells or gametes, the twofold set becomes 

 diminished to one pack only by the elimination of one com- 

 plete pack. The true meaning of the reduction of chromo- 

 somes is the elimination of one set of characters or qualities, 

 such that if among those of the original sets there be any 

 unsuitable ones these are rejected. The union of two sets 

 of characters at conjugation is in animals retained by the 

 germ cells, until the period of reduction, by the embryonic 

 cell, until the commencement of its development, when it 

 becomes latent, and in plants during the whole life period 

 of the flowering plant. The two sets cannot be identical at 

 the start. As living entities, they must be influenced by the 

 total environment, nutrition, climate, disease, toxins, etc. 

 To all these influences they will react. The effect of all 

 the factors will be a different one on the differently 

 constituted characters. Some it will favour, and these will 

 flourish and increase in import ; others will be unfavourably 

 influenced or neglected, and these will diminish. At the 

 reduction there will be a settling up, and if the environment 

 have not been a constant one, some of the characters will 

 have become better than other corresponding ones, a new 

 pack will be chosen, and the less favourable characters will 

 be rejected. This elimination of characters may, on occasion, 

 become an elimination of complete individualities, or, what is 

 the same thing, as a casting out of ' ancestors.' Moreover^ 

 because the two sets have been conjoined under the influences 

 of the environment, and have reacted to this, the process 

 becomes a self-adjusting mechanism, the up and down 

 oscillations of the characters of the two sets endeavouring 

 to follow and compensate the changes in the environment, 

 and the result must be genetic variation. This process may 

 be defined as germinal election and elimination in adaptation 

 to the environment." • 



Dr Beard therefore postulates a " germinal election," and 



