ii.] PROCESSES IN HEREDITY. 7 



6 feet, as 6 feet + 6 inches ; if 5-| feet, as 5^ feet + 

 5^ inches ; that is to say, as 5 feet + 11-| inches. 1 



Similarly as regards sons and daughters ; whatever 

 may be observed or concluded concerning daughters 

 will, if transmuted, be held true as regarding sons, 

 and whatever is said concerning sons, will if re- 

 transmuted, be held true for daughters. We shall see 

 further on that it is easy to apply this principle to 

 all measurable qualities. 



Particulate Inheritance. — All living beings are indi- 

 viduals in one aspect and composite in another. They 

 are stable fabrics of an inconceivably large number of 

 cells, each of which has in some sense a separate life of 

 its own, and which have been combined under influences 

 that are the subjects of much speculation, but are as 

 yet little understood. We seem to inherit bit by bit, 

 this element from one progenitor that from another, 

 under conditions that will be more clearly expressed as 

 we proceed, while the several bits are themselves liable 

 to some small change during the process of transmission. 

 Inheritance may therefore be described as largely if not 

 wholly " particulate," and as such it will be treated in 

 these pages. Though this word is good English and 

 accurately expresses its own meaning, the application 



1 The proportion I use is as 100 to 108 ; that is, I multiply every female 

 measure by 108, which is a ^ery easy operation to those who possess that 

 most useful book to statisticians, Crelle's Tables (G. Reimer, Berlin, 1875). 

 It gives the products of all numbers under 1000, each into each ; so by 

 referring to the column headed 108, the transmuted values of the female 

 statures can be read off at once. 



