206 



THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XL VI 



Genetics has not yet brought us one single step nearer 

 the solution of the problem of the progressive origin of 

 new characters in mammals. The very independence, 

 multiplicity and discontinuity of the units leave us 

 farther afield. In place of what used to be regarded as 

 the instability of the organisms, as a whole, we now have 

 to conceive of the instability of thousands, nay hundreds 

 of thousands of units. 



As shown in our analysis of the saltations cited by 

 Darwin and Bateson, Mendelism has revealed the fact 

 that the majority of saltations simply reflect failures in 

 the germinal mechanism. The inference is natural that 

 the remaining minority also represent anomalies, or law- 

 less conditions. Over a half century of anatomical re- 

 search among mammals has failed to demonstrate in a 

 state of nature the sudden origin of a single new pro- 

 gressive character which has become fixed in the race. 



Nor have Mendelism and experimentalism released us 

 from the hard confines of examination of the germ 

 through the soma; behavior of unit characters in the 

 soma is the sole means of knowing the behavior of the 

 " determiners" in the germ. If the unit characters in 

 the soma behave discontinuously we are forced to the 

 conclusion that their determiners behave discontinu- 

 ously; if, on the contrary, these unit characters behave 

 continuously, are we not forced to the conclusion that 

 there is a continuity in the behavior of the correspond- 

 ing determiners! 



Let us therefore proceed to consider the value of some 

 of the evidence for continuous behavior in the origin of 

 certain new characters, again repeating our opinion that 

 certain other characters are antithetic, without interme- 

 diates, and consequently discontinuous both in heredity 

 and in origin. 



(To be concluded^ 



