GENETICS VERSUS PALEONTOLOGY 

 DR. WILLIAM K. GREGORY 

 American Museuji op Natural History 



Although the title of this article has a somewhat con- 

 troversial sound, its purpose is merely to discuss, in a per- 

 fectly frank and appreciative way, certain passages in the 

 recent works of two eminent geneticists, Professor Wil- 

 liam Bateson and Professor T. H. Morgan. 



''Naturally," says Professor Bateson,^ in describing a 

 certain theoretical impasse as regards the method of evo- 

 lution, "we turn aside from generalities. It is no time to 

 discuss the origin of the Mollusca or of Dicotyledons 

 while we are not even sure how it came to pass that 

 Primula ohconica has in twenty-five years produced its 

 abundant new forms almost under our eyes. " 



Taken in connection with other passages, this seems to 

 imply the belief that the present is no time to investigate 

 phylogenetic problems or to formulate any generalities 

 concerning the origin of systematic groups of organisms. 

 Until the facts of heredity are explained we should turn 

 aside from most of the major problems that engaged the 

 attention of the great comparative anatomists and pale- 

 ontologists of the nineteenth century. The origin of. 

 paired limbs, the origin of the vertebrates, the mutual re- 

 lations of the great phyla of invertebrates, and similar 

 phylogenetic problems in botany, all these and hundreds 

 more of the same category having been laid aside by the 

 majority of zoologists, are dead or moribund subjects 

 which a student of genetics had better leave in decent ob- 

 scurity. If Professor Bateson had said ''I turn aside 

 from generalities. I have no time to discuss the origin of 

 the Mollusca or of Dicotyledons. I used to be interested 

 in such things, but now I would much rather study the 

 mutations of Primula ohconica," nobody could reasonably 

 object ; but when he says ''we turn aside from generalities. 

 It is no time [for any one] to discuss the origin of the 



1 Science, N. S., Vol. 40, 1914, p. 294. 



622 



