510 
strength of its tendency to regress ; thus a mean regression from 
1 in the mid-parents to 3 in the offspring would indicate only 
half as much stability as if it had been to $. 
The mean regression in stature of a population is easily ascer- 
tained, but I do not see much use in knowing it. It has already 
been stated that half the population vary less than 1°7 inch from 
mediocrity, this keing what is technically known as the ‘‘ prob- 
able” deviation. The mean deviation is, by a well-known 
theory, 1°18 times that of the probable deviation, therefore in 
this case it is 1°9 inch. The mean loss through regression is 4 
of that amount, ora little more than 0°6 inch. That is to say, 
taking one child with another, the mean amount by which they 
fall short of their mid-parental peculiarity of stature is rather 
more than six-tenths of an inch. 
With respect to these and the other numerical estimates, I 
wish emphatically to say that I offer them only as being service- 
ably approximate, though they are mutually consistent, and with 
the desire that they may be reinvestigated by the help of more 
abundant and much more accurate measurements than those I 
have had at command. There are many simple and interesting 
relations to which I am still unable to assign numerical values 
for lack of adequate material, such as that to which I referred 
some time back of the superior influence of the father over the 
mother on the stature of their sons and daughters. 
The limits of deviation beyond which there is no regression, 
but a new condition of equilibrium is entered into, and a new 
type comes into existence, have still to be explored. Let us 
consider how much we can infer from undisputed facts of heredity 
regarding the conditions amid which any form of stable equilib- 
rium, such as is implied by the word ‘‘ type,” must be established, 
or might be disestablised and superseded by another. In doing 
so I will follow cautiously along the same path by which Darwin 
started to construct his provisional theory of pangenesis ; but it 
is not in the least necessary to go so far as that theory, or to 
entangle ourselyes in any questioned hypothesis. 
There can be no doubt that heredity proceeds to a consider- 
able extent, perhaps principally, in a piecemeal or piebald fashion, 
causing the person of the child to be to that extent a mosaic of 
independent ancestral heritages, one part coming with more or 
less variation from this progenitor and another from that. 
express this aspect of inheritance, where particle proceeds from 
particle, we may conveniently describe it as ‘‘ particulate.” 
So far as the transmission of any feature may be regarded as 
an example of particulate inheritance, so far (it seems little more 
than a truism to assert) the element from which that feature was 
developed must have been particulate also. Therefore, wher- 
eyer a feature in a child was not personally possessed by either 
parent, but transmitted through one of them from a more distant 
progenitor, the element whence that feature was developed must 
haye existed in a particulate, though impersonal and latent, form 
in the body of the parent. The total heritage of that parent 
will have included a greater variety of material than was utilised 
in the formation of his own personal structure. Only a portion 
of it became developed ; the survival of at least a small part of 
the remainder is proved, and that of a larger part may be inferred 
by his transmitting it to the person of his child. Therefore the 
organised structure of each individual should be viewed as the 
fulfilment of only one out of an indefinite number of mutually 
exclusive possibilities. It is the development of a single sample 
drawn out of a group of elements. The conditions under which 
each element in the sample became selected are, of course, un- 
known, but it is reasonable to expect they would fall under one 
or other of the following agencies: first, self-selection, where 
each element selects its most suitable neighbour, as in the theory 
of pangenesis ; secondly, general co-ordination, or the influence 
exerted on each element by many or all of the remaining ones, 
whether in its immediate neighbourhood or not ; finally, a group 
of diverse agencies, alike only in the fact that they are not 
uniformly helpful or harmful, that they influence with no constant 
purpose—in philosophical language, that they are not teleological ; 
in popular language, that they are accidents or chances. ‘Their 
inclusion renders it impossible to predict the peculiarities of 
individual children, though it does not prevent the prediction of 
average results. We now see something of the general character 
of the conditions amid which the stable equilibrium that charac- 
terises each race must subsist. 
Politica! analogies of stability and change of type abound, 
and are useful to fix the ideas, as I pointed out some years ago. 
Let us take that which is afforded by the government of a colony 
which has become independent. The individual colonists rank 
To | 
NATURE 
[Sepé. 24, 1885 
as particulate representatives of families or other groups in the 
parent country. The organised colonial government ranks as the 
personality of the colony, being its mouthpiece and executive. 
The government is evolved amid political strife, one element 
prevailing here and another there. The prominent victors band 
theniselves into the nucleus of a paity, additions to their number 
and revisions of it ensue, until a body of men are associated 
capable of conducting a completely organised administration. 
The kinship between the form of government of the colony and 
that of the parent state is far from direct, and resembles ina 
general way that which I conceive to subsist between the child 
and his mid-parentage. We should expect to find many points 
of resemblance between the two, and many instances of great 
dissimilarity, for our political analogy teaches us only too well 
on what slight accidents the character of the government may 
depend when parties are nearly balanced. 
The appearance of 9 new and useful family peculiarity is a 
boon to breeders, who by selection in mating gradually reduce 
the preponderance of those ancestral elements that endanger 
reversion. The appearance of a new type is due to causes that 
lie beyond our reach, so we ought to welcome every useful one 
as a happy chance, and do our best to domicile and perpetuate 
it. When heredity shall have become much better and more 
generally understood than now, I can believe that we shall look 
upon a neglect to conserve any valuable form of family type as a 
wrongful waste of opportunity. The appearance of each new 
natural peculiarity is a faltering step in the upward journey of 
evolution, over which, in outward appearance, the whole living 
world is blindly blundering and stumbling, but whose general 
direction man has the intelligence dimly to discern, and whose 
progress he has power to facilitate. 
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE + 
qp ees meeting of 1885 of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science was held at the Ann 
Arbor University. The total attendance (according to 
Science) of members was not a large one, the number 
reaching only to 365; the number of papers was 176. 
Two changes in the organisation were made; by one, the 
section of histology and microscopy was abolished, as it 
has been urged for some time that a special science of 
microscopy does not exist, the microscope being rather a 
tool to be used by scientific men in various branches. 
The other change was in the name of the section of 
mechanics, the words “and engineering” being added to 
the title, that it may be more clearly understood by 
Americans that those interested in all branches of 
engineering are invited to take part in the proceedings. 
As this was the first meeting since the action of the 
Government in regard to the Coast Survey, the question 
was generally discussed. The matter was referred to a 
committee, which offered to a general session of the 
Association the following resolutions, which were unanim- 
ously accepted :— 
WHEREAS, The attention of this Association has been called 
to articles in the public press, purporting to give—and presum- 
ably by authority—an official report of a Commission appointed 
by the Treasury department to investigate the condition of the 
U.S. Coast Survey Office, in which report the value of a certain 
scientific work is designated as ‘‘ meagre.” 
AND WHEREAS, This Association desires to express a hope 
that the decision, as to the utility of such scientific work, may 
be referred to scientific men. 
Resolved, That the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science is in earnest sympathy with the Government in its 
every intent to secure the greatest possible efficiency of the 
public service. E 
Resolved, That the value of the scientific work performed in 
the various departments of the Government can be best judged 
by scientific men. , 
Resolved, That this Association desires to express its earnest 
approval of the extent and high character of the work performed 
by the U.S. Coast Survey—especially as illustrated by the 
' For early copies of the addresses and papers we are indebted to the 
editor of Sczence. : 
4 
