May 17, 1912] 
heredity. The facts regarding the inherit- 
ance of color are better known than is the 
case with other groups of characters. The 
suggestion that the ‘‘factors’’ above men- 
tioned are merely the power of producing 
certain chemical substances seems to me to 
be worthy of consideration. I believe that 
on this suggestion a new working theory 
of inheritance can be constructed that will 
explain the facts without recourse to the 
idea of ‘‘unit-characters,’’ ‘‘pangenes,’’ or 
any kind of character “‘bearers,’’ in the 
sense of bodies or substances which are 
alone responsible for the development of a 
given character. It would be out of place 
here to attempt to present such a theory. 
I think, however, that an illustration of 
what I mean may be permissible. Let us 
suppose that a series of wireless stations, 
say in San Francisco, Denver, St. Louis 
and Washington, attempt to relay a mes- 
sage from the Pacific to the Atlantic. 
Now, if the St. Louis station should fail to 
do its part, the message would not arrive. 
In this case, we may not say that, if this 
station had done its part, it would have 
been the sender of the message. The relay- 
ing at that station is merely one of a chain 
of events that are necessary to the success 
of the experiment. But if St. Louis fails, 
then that station 2s responsible for the 
failure of the message to arrive at Wash- 
ington. 
The production of red pigment in the 
seed coat of the cowpea may possibly be a 
complex process in which every part of the 
living substance of the cell is concerned; 
but if a single cell organ which performs 
a necessary part of this process fails to 
play its part, then red pigment fails to 
develop. The cell organ whose failure to 
perform a usual function may thus be 
accountable for the lack of pigment for- 
mation might then be considered the 
‘“oene,’’ as Johannsen ealls it, for the 
SCIENCE 
767 
absence of red pigment; while the whole 
organism might be the gene for the pres- 
ence of this pigment. 
In order that the study of the physio- 
logical chemistry of pigment formation 
shall give results of the greatest impor- 
tance to the theory of heredity, it would 
be an ideal condition if such work could 
be carried out by one who possesses a wide 
acquaintance with the facts and theories in 
both these sciences. But such men are not 
plentiful. The next best scheme would be 
a cooperative study of the subject by two 
men, one in each field. JI am happy to be 
able to say that Dr. Bartlett has consented 
to take up the chemical end of this work 
in connection with my investigations of the 
genetic phases of the problem, and Pro- 
fessor Piper has promised to grow the 
material for such study. Gortner’s impor- 
tant work in this field, in connection with 
Dr. C. B. Davenport’s work on genetics, 
has already been mentioned. With all 
these investigations, and those of Miss 
Wheldale and Professor Bateson at Cam- 
bridge, it is to be hoped that we shall gain 
a somewhat more definite view of the na- 
ture of Mendelian factors. 
W. J. SPILLMAN 
THE PERUVIAN EXPEDITION OF 1912 
Tue Peruvian Expedition of 1912, organ- 
ized under the auspices of Yale University 
and the National Geographic Society for the 
purpose of carrying on geographic and anthro- 
pologie exploration in Peru, will endeavor to 
continue and extend the work of the Yale 
Peruvian Expedition of 1911, utilizing the 
discoveries made then and continuing further 
along the same lines. 
It is our purpose to pursue intensive studies 
in the region where reconnaissance work was 
done on the last expedition, taking advantage 
of the discoveries then made to guide the plans 
for this year. 
