ii.] PROCESSES IN HEREDITY. 17 



obtain precise information concerning the penumbra 

 of uncertainty that attaches itself to single predic- 

 tions. It would be premature to speak further of 

 this at present ; what has been said is enough to give 

 a clue to the chief motive of this chapter. Its 

 intention has been to show the large part that is always 

 played by chance in the course of hereditary transmission, 

 and to establish the importance of an intelligent use of 

 the laws of chance and of the statistical methods that 

 are based upon them, in expressing the conditions 

 under which heredity acts. 



I may here point out that, as the processes of statis- 

 tics are themselves processes of intimate Mendings, their 

 results are the same, whether the materials had been 

 partially blended or not, before they were statistically 

 taken in hand. 



