THE 



AMERICAN NATURALIST 



Vol. XLVI February, 1912 No. 542 



SOME ASPECTS OF CYTOLOGY IN RELATION 

 TO THE STUDY OF GENETICS 1 



PROFESSOR EDMUND B. WILSON 

 Columbia University 



The consideration of genetic problems from the stand- 

 point of cytological research sometimes encounters a 

 certain opposition or prejudice which seems to me to be 

 due to a misunderstanding of the position that is actu- 

 ally held by many cytologists. It probably grows pri- 

 marily out of a conviction that the heredity of particular 

 traits is not to be explained by referring them to the 

 operation of particular cell-elements or ' ' determiners, " 

 but results from an activity of the whole cell-system, or 

 of the whole organism, regarded as a unit. With this 

 view, as will appear, I am essentially in agreement. In 

 the second place, the opposition is a kind of reaction or 

 protest against the theory of pangens or biophores and 

 the too elaborate logical constructions that have been 

 built upon it, especially by Weismann. I also consider 

 this theory untenable, or at least unnecessary. I will 

 therefore attempt to outline a point of view from which 

 I think genetic problems may reasonably be regarded 

 from the standpoint of the cytologist. 



The most essential result of modern genetic inquiry I 

 take to be the proof of the independence of the so-called 



\A paper read before the American Society of Naturalists at the 

 Princeton meeting, December 28, 1911. 



