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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 608. 



gTuity and incongruity in selective breed- 

 ing, which was put forward by another able 

 writer and naturalist who has now passed 

 from among us, Dr. George Romanes; fur- 

 ther, the views of de Vries as to discon- 

 tinuity in the origin of new species, sup- 

 ported by the valuable work of Mr. Bate- 

 son on discontinuous variation ; and lastly, 

 the attempt to assign a great and general 

 importance to the facts ascertained many 

 years ago by the Abbe Mendel as to the 

 cross-breeding of varieties and the frequent 

 production (in regard to certain characters 

 in certain t3ases) of pure strains rather 

 than of breeds combining the characters of 

 both parents. On the other hand, we have 

 the splendid series of observations and 

 writings of August Weismann, who has in 

 the opinion of the majority of those who 

 study this subject rendered the Lamarck- 

 ian theory of the origin and transmission 

 of new characters altogether untenable, 

 .and has, besides, furnished a most in- 

 'structive, if not finally conclusive, theory 

 •or mechanical scheme of the phenomena of 

 Iheredity in his book, 'The Germ-plasm.' 

 Professor Karl Pearson and the late Pro- 

 fessor Weldon— the latter so early in life 

 and so recently lost to us— have, with the 

 finest courage and enthusiasm in the face 

 of an enormous and difficult task, deter- 

 mined to bring the facts of variation and 

 heredity into the solid form of statistical 

 statement, and have organized, and largely 

 advanced in, this branch of investigation, 

 which they have termed 'Biometrics.' 

 Many naturalists throughout the world 

 have made it the main object of their col- 

 lecting and breeding of insects, birds and 

 plants, to test Darwin's generalizations 

 and to expand the work of Wallace in the 

 same direction. A delightful fact in this 

 survey is that we find Mr. Alfred Russel 

 Wallace (who fifty years ago conceived the 

 same theory as that more fully stated by 

 Darwin) actively working and publishing 



some of the most convincing and valuable 

 works on Darwinism. He is still alive and 

 not merely well, but pursuing his work 

 with vigor and ability. It was chiefly 

 through his researches on insects in South 

 America and the Malay Islands that Mr. 

 Wallace was led to the Darwinian theory; 

 and there is no doubt that the study of 

 insects, especially of butterflies, is still one 

 of the most prolific fields in which new 

 facts can be gathered in support of Dar- 

 win and new views on the subject tested. 

 Prominent amongst naturalists in this line 

 of research has been and is Edward Poul- 

 ton, of Oxford, who has handed on to the 

 study of entomology throughout the world 

 the impetus of the Darwinian theory. I 

 must here also name a writer who, though 

 unknown in our laboratories and museums, 

 seems to me to have rendered very valuable 

 service in later years to the testing of Dar- 

 win's doctrines and to the bringing of a 

 great class of organic phenomena within 

 the cognizance of those naturalists who are 

 especially occupied with the problems of 

 variation and heredity. I mean Dr. Arch- 

 dall Reid, who has with keen logic made 

 use of the immense accumulation of ma- 

 terial which is in the hands of medical men, 

 and has pointed out the urgent importance 

 of increased use by Darwinian investiga- 

 tors of the facts as to the variation and 

 heredity of that unique animal, man, 

 unique in his abundance, his reproductive 

 activity, and his power of assisting his in- 

 vestigator by his own record. There are 

 more observations about the variation and 

 heredity of man and the conditions attend- 

 ant upon individual instances than with 

 regard to any other animal. Medical men 

 need only to grasp clearly the questions at 

 present under discussion in order to be able 

 to furnish with ease data absolutely inval- 

 uable in quantity and quality. Dr. Arch- 

 dall Reid has in two original books full of 

 insight and new suggestions, the 'Present 



