TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 589’ 
Imowledge. But certain it is that if causes of variation are to be found by pene- 
tration, they must be specific causes. A mad dog is not ‘caused’ by July heat, 
nor a moss rose by progressive culture. We await our Pasteur; founding our 
hope of progress on the aphorism of Virchow, that every variation from type is 
due to a pathological accident, the true corollary of ‘ Omnis cellula e cellula. 
In imperfect fashion I have now sketched the lines by which the investigation 
of heredity is proceeding, and some of the definite results achieved. We are 
asked sometimes, Is this new knowledge any use? That is a question with which 
we, here, have fortunately no direct concern. Our business in life is to find things 
out, and we do not look beyond. But as regards heredity, the answer to this 
question of use is so plain that we may give it without turning from the way. 
We may truly say, for example, that even our present knowledge of heredity, 
limited as it is, will be found of extraordinary use. Though only a beginning has 
been made, the powers of the breeder of plants and animals are vastly increased. 
Breeding is the greatest industry to which science has never yet been applied. 
This strange anomaly is over; and, so far at least as fixation or purification of types 
is concerned, the breeder of plants and animals may henceforth guide his operations 
with a great measure of certainty. 
There are others who look to the science of heredity with a loftier aspiration ; 
who ask, Can any of this be used to help those who come after to be better than 
we are—healthier, wiser, or more worthy? The answer depends on the meaning 
of the question. On the one hand it is certain that a competent breeder, endowed 
with full powers, by the aid even of our present knowledge, could in a few genera- 
tions breed out several of the morbid diatheses. As we have got rid of rabies and 
pleuro-pneumonia so we could exterminate the simpler vices. Voltaire’s cry 
‘Keraser l’infame’ might well replace Archbishop Parker’s Table of Forbidden 
Degrees, which is all the instruction Parliament has so far provided. Similarly, a 
race may conceivably be bred true to some physical and intellectual characters 
considered good. The positive side of the problem is less hopeful, but the various 
species of mankind offer ample material. In this sense science already suggests 
the way. No one, however, proposes to take it; and so long as, in our actual 
laws of breeding, superstition remains the guide of nations, rising ever fresh and 
unhurt from the assaults of knowledge, there is nothing to hope or to fear from 
these sciences. 
But if, as is usual, the philanthropist is seeking for some external application by ~ 
which to ameliorate the course of descent, knowledge of heredity cannot help him. 
The answer to his question is No, almost without qualification. We have no 
experience of any means by which transmiysion may be made to deviate from 
its course; nor from the moment of fertilisation can teaching, or hygiene, or 
exhortation pick out the particles of evil in that zygote, or put in one particle of 
good. From seeds in the same pod may come sweet peas climbing five feet 
high, while their own brothers lie prone upon the ground. The stick will not 
make the dwarf peas climb, though without it the tall cannever rise. Education, 
sanitation, and the rest, are but the giving or withholding of opportunity. Though 
in the matter of heredity every other conclusion has been questioned, I rejoice 
that in this we are all agreed. 
The following Papers were read :— 
1, Lhe Coloration of Marine Crustacea.' By Professor F. W. Kexsus, 
2. The Miocene Ungulates of Patagonia. By Professor W. B. Scort. 
The expeditions sent by Princeton University to Patagonia, under the leadership 
of the lamented Mr. Hatcher, were extraordinarily successful in collecting fossil 
A 1 Embodied in the Report on the Colour Physiology of the Higher Crustacea 
. 299). 
