﻿MaticJiester Memoirs, Vol. xlix. (1905), No. 0. 3 



following pages : in them I shall do my best to discover 

 the most essential characteristics of Mendelian and 

 biometric theory and so to put myself in a position to 

 discuss their mutual relationship. 



With regard to the scope of this essay, there is one 

 point I wish to emphasize : it may be that some critic will 

 lay down this pamphlet with the remark that all that he 

 has read may be very true, but that the fact remains that 

 the only thing which " matters" is the mass-phenomenon ; 

 or another may declare that the key which will unlock the 

 secret of heredity can only be obtained by a study of the 

 properties of the germ cells. I do not propose to express 

 an opinion on either of these contentions, but I wish most 

 strongly to insist that when a man has made either of 

 them, he has stepped from one country into another. 

 After discussing the mutual relation of two theories, he 

 suddenly asserts that after all it is only one of them that 

 matters — as one who during a discussion of the evidence 

 for and against the existence of mental activity after the 

 death of the brain should declare that after all, belief in 

 such a survival was a great comfort to many : both ques- 

 tions may be worth discussing, but they should be dis- 

 cussed separately. In this essay I propose to treat of the 

 mutual relations of the two theories purely as theories,, 

 without touching on the question of their possible value 

 to the pure or applied biologist. 



The reader may easily convince himself by a perusal 

 of the literature on this subject that the self-same facts 

 are interpreted by the rival schools of thought in the light 

 of their own theories : and if he looks for recognition from 

 either party that there may be something of truth in the 

 opinions of their opponents, he will search in vain. I do 

 not propose to discuss the opposite points of view, because 

 I believe that the remedy for the present inconclusiveness 



