No. 544] 



ORIGIN OF UNIT CHARACTERS 



193 



majority of these characters throws the remainder as 

 well as saltatory new characters in general under sus- 

 picion of abnormality. 



Paleontology, however, furnishes the most direct evi- 

 dence of the abnormality of saltations in some of the 

 hard parts shown in Table I by presenting counter evi- 

 dence that such profound changes as abbreviation of the 

 face (proopic brachycephaly), development or loss of 

 horns, reduction or absence of caudal vertebrae, abbrevia- 

 tion or elongation of the limbs, syndactylism or consoli- 

 dation of separate metapodials have all been established, 

 wherever we know their history, through continuity and 

 not through discontinuity. 



2. Bateson's Evidence (1894) of Discontinuity 

 Bateson in 1894° was the first to clearly advance the 

 discontinuity hypothesis as a mode of origin of species 

 in its modern form. At the time this work appeared it 

 suffered a searching review from Scott. 10 Mutationists, 11 

 however, still refer to it as laying the foundations for the 

 discontinuity hypothesis. In order to test the "Materials 

 for the Study of Variation" critically in the light of the 

 subsequent advance in paleontology, Dr. W. D. Matthew, 

 who is without bias in the question, was requested to 

 examine all the cases of discontinuity in mammals cited 

 by the author with reference to the question whether or 

 not these cases have any real significance in evolution. 

 He reports : 



