98 



sense of the new combinations of old characters which come into 

 being by reason of stable, non-reverting hybrids, ai«e known to 

 have originated, but such new forms imply of course the preexist- 

 ence of varied types, and do not have to do with the question of 

 the origin of new characters. 



It is not in the order of things that a new theory of such im- 

 port as the Mutation Theory should not find opponents. These 

 I think may, in the main, be grouped in three classes. First, 

 the critics who doubt the evidence, who can be answered by re- 

 ferring them to the printed records, and recommending a repeti- 

 tion, as careful as the original work, of the experiments which 

 have led to the new point of view. Second, those who quibble 

 concerning terms, and this type I think constitutes the majority, 

 who will likely suffer the fate that is usually meted out to quib- 

 blers, that of being ignored. Lastly, those opponents who, while 

 they may not doubt the accuracy of the work doubt the con- 

 clusions on philosophical grounds. These are the critics whom 

 the advocate of the de Vries Theory must welcome and who will 

 arrest his sober attention, for they will stimulate him to accumu- 

 late more and more evidence to support his position. Even were 

 I able to analyze adequately the controversial side of the ques- 

 tion for you, it is obvious that time scarcely allows, and I will, in 

 consequence, state frankly that the account which I have pre- 

 sented is from the standpoint of an advocate of what the Muta- 

 tion Theory teaches, and add that I am not aware that any 

 experimental work has controverted it. Let me say, however, 

 and here I wish to speak for myself alone, that I cannot see it 

 makes great odds whether fifty years hence or five years hence 

 we accept the Mutation Theory just as propounded by de Vries. 

 The great point is that an advance has been made, the most im- 

 portant advance since the time of Darwin, by way of helping to 

 elucidate one of the great questions in which man is interested. 

 It is not to be supposed that we have as yet any final answer to 

 this question ; final answers are not indeed the goal of any one 

 scientific research. It was Sir Isaac Newton, I think, who said 

 that the seeker after ultimate causes did not show the true scien- 

 tific spirit, and he was right. What we have is one of the proxi- 



