SHORTER ARTICLES AND DISCUSSION 



DATA, DIALECTICS AND OTHER DIGRESSIONS 



whether the facts alleged be sensible, visible, or not, must be held bound 



of attaining to assurance and certainty.— William Harvey, Second Dis- 

 quisition to John Riolon, Jim. 



To the Editor of the American Naturalist : 



My reasons for asking you to publish the above from your Sep- 

 tember, 1911, issue are two: the text is excellent; the sermon is 

 wide of the mark. 



The text, the reader will have noted, heads a latest contribu- 

 tion to our knowledge of egg production in the domestic fowl 1 

 which Dr. Pearl has been prevailed upon to write up by the con- 



of what our results really arc, or else a lack of understanding of 

 the real facts regarding certain of the biological points in- 

 some degree at least" those biologists who are thereby instructed 

 in matters of fact will doubtless be grateful. 



The obvious implication of Dr. Pearl's quotation from Harvey 

 and of his concluding remarks is that my arguments concerning 

 the genotype concept are of a purely scholastic and "far- 

 fetched" order. 



In consideration of these implications and in justice to my 

 paper which appeared in your June number may I call your 



First. I certainly did not ^eek by dialectics and far- 



Proof of the Pure Line Theory," 



636 



