SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



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from the discontinuity of variation." Yet in what 

 way ? Mr. Bateson still professes to believe in the 

 origin of species through natural selection ; so we 

 must suppose it is by the preservation of such 

 sudden, or discontinuous, variations in the struggle 

 for existence. He wisely goes into no detail as to 

 how this can happen, or how the isolation of a 

 new species is more probable on this view than on 

 that of small variations. Neither does Mr. Bateson 

 appear to believe in the swamping effects of 

 intercrossing, which, according to others, is one 

 of the greatest difficulties: "An error more far- 

 reaching and mischievous," he writes, " is the 

 doctrine that a new variation must immediately be 

 swamped, if I may use the term that authors have 

 thought fit to employ." 



We may note here some eminent evolutionists 

 who have expressed their adherence to this so- 

 called mischievous and far-reaching error. Darwin 

 himself has admitted the swamping effects of 

 intercrossing : " It would clearly be advantageous 

 to two varieties or incipient species, if they could 

 be kept from blending." Wallace has done the 

 same. Only under certain conditions do these 

 authors believe that this swamping effect can be 

 overcome and new species formed. Romanes 

 believed that only under the influence of physio- 

 logical selection, or some other form of isolation, 

 can an incipient species be preserved. Weismann, 

 again, considers swamping to be the usual fate of 

 varieties when natural selection does not pick them 

 out, to use the current misleading phraseology. 

 To these evolutionists, then, Mr. Bateson ascribes 

 a far-reaching and mischievous error. The hit at 

 the inventor of Panmixia is, however, perhaps 

 deserved, at any rate as regards the language : 

 " We may doubt, indeed, whether the ideas 

 associated with that flower of speech, 'Panmixia,' 

 are not as false to the laws of life as the word is to 

 the laws of language." But what does Mr. Bateson 

 say to the answer we receive when we interrogate 

 the breeder and nurseryman on this point ? What 

 happens when the different varieties of our 

 domestic breeds are not carefully kept from 

 breeding with each other ? Do they keep their 

 distinctive characters when artificial selection and 

 isolation are remitted ? Why does the gardener 

 require to keep his choice varieties out of the 

 reach of the pollen of every other variety ? What 

 is the result if the various species of cabbage are 

 allowed to seed together in the same garden ? We 

 cannot complain that the answer to these questions 

 is at all an uncertain one. The testimony is 

 unanimous that any variety will be swamped, or, if 

 the term swamped be objected to, we will say lost, 

 if allowed to breed freely with others. 



We must confess, again, that Mr. Bateson seems 

 to misrepresent the upholders of natural selection 

 when he asserts that " the belief that all distinctness 



is due to natural selection, and the expectation that 

 apart from natural selection there would be a 

 general level of confusion, agrees ill with the facts 

 of variation." For surely it would be more accurate 

 to say, " apart from natural selection there would 

 be a general level of uniformity" — a few simple 

 species, one species, or none at all, according as 

 we suppose there was one primary form of life 

 created, or several, as Darwin suggested ; or, 

 pushing the matter further, assume that the first 

 species was the result of natural selection on dead 

 matter. Mr. Bateson himself, as a believer in 

 natural selection, must attribute some of the dis- 

 tinctness of species to it ; but how much ? Does 

 he, we ask, believe that sufficient distinctness to 

 constitute species may exist without it ? If so, 

 natural selection is not required in the origin of 

 species, that is to say, not in the origin of all species. 

 On this question Mr. Bateson seems undecided, 

 whilst apparently wishing to retain natural selection 

 with one hand, to give it up with the other. 



Thus, like the Caesars who have done so before 

 him, Mr. Bateson as Brutus has shown that he 

 also can call forth spirits of difficulty from the 

 vasty deeps of the theory of natural selection. He 

 has, in my judgment, failed to show that he can 

 disperse them when they come — as they freely do, 

 at his call — by waving over them his wand of 

 Discontinuous Variation. Along with those called 

 forth by other biological conjurers they stand in 

 serried ranks, a great army ready to devour the 

 last remnant of faith in a great theory. 



29, Queen's Terrace, 



Jesmond, N ewcastle-011-Tyne. 



Indian Plague in Europe.— For more than a 

 year past, at the pathological institute attached to 

 the Central Hospital of Vienna, Professor Weich- 

 selbaum and his assistants have been investigating 

 the Asiatic disease known as bubonic plague. These 

 experiments have been conducted with extreme 

 care by those engaged upon them, in case any of 

 the bacilli of the disease should spread beyond 

 the precincts of the special laboratory where the 

 research was conducted. The staff employed 

 consisted of the Professor and Dr. xMbrecht, with 

 one other assistant, both of whom have been in 

 India engaged on these investigations. One other 

 person only was admitted to the rooms — an atten- 

 dant, named Barisch. On being appointed, some 

 fifteen months ago, Barisch was asked if he would 

 be inoculated for the plague, but thought there 

 was no need. He had always proved thoroughly 

 trustworthy, and was latterly treated by the staff 

 rather as an assistant than an attendant. Recently 

 Barisch had occasionally returned home late 

 at night slightly intoxicated. This affected his 

 faculties, and he became careless in his work. On 

 Saturday, October 15th, Barisch seemed to be ill, 

 and it was thought he suffered from influenza, but 

 by Tuesday, the 18th, the disease was found to be 

 plague, and he died that evening. His nurses 

 were isolated, but one of them and Dr. Muller, 

 who attended him, have contracted the disease, 

 and the latter has also died. 



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