﻿1 8 DARBISHIRE, Mendelian and Biometric Theories. 



And though we can perhaps understand the Mendelian 

 declaring as he slides the latch of his breeding-pen that 

 " Operating among such phenomena the gross statistical 

 method is a misleading instrument ; and, applied to 

 these intricate discriminations, the imposing Correlation 

 Table into which the biometrical Procrustes fits his arrays 

 of unanalysed data is still no substitute for the common 

 sieve of a trained judgment ;" and that " nothing but minute 

 analysis of the facts by an observer thoroughly conversant 

 with the particular plant or animal, its habits and pro- 

 perties, checked by the test of crucial experiment, can 

 disentangle the truth ;"* and appreciate the point of view 

 of the Biometer marshalling his vast arrays when he 

 contends that it is " better to use the purely descriptive 

 statements of Galton and Pearson than to invoke the 

 cumbrous and undemonstrable gametic mechanism on 

 which Mendel's hypothesis rests,"f I do not see that we 

 have any right to remain blind any longer to the fact that 

 the contradiction of their respective theories is only 

 apparent, and is due to the radical difference in their 

 points of view. 



* Pres. Address to Sect. D. Nature, August 25, 1904, p. 408. 

 ■\ Nature, Sept. 29, 1904, p. 539. 



