xiv MUTATION, MENDELISM, ETC 



Evolution of, first, Bateson's work on Variation, 

 secondly Mendel's interesting discovery. 



5. The contemptuous depreciation of other lines of 



investigation directly inspired by the work and 

 teaching of Darwin and Wallace. 



6. The natural consequence of this last : — a wide- 



spread belief among the ill-informed that the 



teachings of the founders of modern biology are 



abandoned. 



I should wish to add that, although solely responsible 



for the contents of this Introductory chapter, I did not 



venture to publish it without consulting a number of 



the leading zoologists and botanists in this country. 



Without a single exception my friends agreed with the 



general line of argument, and felt with me that the protest 



was called for. 



1. Evolution, Continuous or Discontinuous. 



Although the word ' Mutation ' is so much in evidence 

 in the opening years of this century — as if it implied 

 some new and illuminating idea — the conception of the 

 origin of species by sudden steps is in reality very old. 



The terms Continuous and Discontinuous are of course 

 merely relative, as Bateson has clearly expressed it : — 

 ' In proportion as the transition from term to term is 

 minimal and imperceptible we may speak of the Series 

 as being Continuous, while in proportion as there appear 

 in it lacunae, filled by no transitional form, we may 

 describe it as Discontinuous'. 1 Judged by this statement, 

 parts of the series of species in the Organic World are 

 discontinuous, parts continuous. It is the discontinuity 



1 Materials for the Study of Variation, London, 1894, p. 15. Here- 

 after quoted as On Variation. 



