Miscellaneous. 



50 



[July, 1909 



B factor. Here then we have a perfectly 

 simple explanation provided for the 

 phenomenon of reversion. Although we 

 may hesitate to suggest that the same 

 sort of thing is going on when baby's 

 nose unexpectedly resembles the striking 

 portaiit of his great-great-grandfather, 

 it is at least quite possible that this 

 may be the case. 



We have indeed no grounds for exclud- 

 ing man from the operation of these 

 rules of inheritance. In fact, in the case 

 of one or two simple characters inheri- 

 tance of this kind has already been 

 demonstrated in human beings. 



Those who are only familiar with 

 what was known of the laws of heredity 

 ten years ago, will b^ struck with a 

 sense of the complete novelty of the 

 ideas here inculcated. The somewhat 

 vague notions current only so short a 

 time since are not so much extended 

 or even altered as replaced by an entirely 

 new set of ideas. And in passing it 

 may be remarked that the biologists of 

 fifty years ago and more were much 

 c loser to our present line of inquiry 

 ^han their successors were. 



These new conceptions may be briefly 

 summarised. 



We have in the first place the concep- 

 tion of unit characters. We find that 

 separate features of an organism may 

 be inherited quite independently of one 

 another. It is this fact alone which 

 renders experimental work upon here- 

 dity possible. 



Characters of* this kind we find to be 

 inherited according to a definite arith- 

 metical scheme or law, in which, as a 

 general rule, each character pursues its 

 own course unaffected by any other 

 characters which may happen to be 

 present. We do in some cases find so 

 called correlations where groups of fea- 

 tures behave more or less as if they 

 were single characters, but into these 

 complications we do not propose to enter 

 on the present occasion. 



We find our conception of what con- 

 stitutes purity in a strain of animals or 

 plants to be completely altered. We 

 now know that purity does not depend 

 simply upon the number of generations 

 during which the race has exhibited a 

 constant character. On the contrary 

 a strain of perfect purity may arise 

 from the second generation from a cross. 

 Such a strain may exhibit an entirely 

 new combination of the parental charac- 

 ters. But this is so far the only kind of 

 novelty which we can produce at will. 

 We know next to nothing about the 

 method by which genuinely new charac- 

 ters arise, as they sometimes do. We 

 can only take advantage of such charac- 



ters when they do happen to make their 

 appearance. 



Special attention should be drawn to 

 the definiteness of the characters with 

 which we deal. We do not invoke im- 

 proved features by gradual selection ; 

 these characters are either present or 

 they are absent. It is further to be re- 

 membered that every process of definite 

 inheritance which has been worked out 

 in the case of a plant can be paralleled 

 by similar phenomena taking place in one 

 or other of the higher animals and vice 

 versa ; heredity in animals and plants 

 seems to follow precisely similar lines. 



R. H. L. 



CEYLON AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

 REPORT, 1908-1909. 



Meetings. 



The last Annual General Meeting was 

 held on June 15, 1908. The present re- 

 port deals with the ensuing twelve 

 months since that date. 



At the suggestion of His Excellency 

 the President rule 3 was amended to 

 provide for ordinary Board Meetings 

 being held every other month instead of 

 monthly. Accordingly meetings were 

 held on August 3, October 5, December 3, 

 1008, and February 4 and April 7, 1909. His 

 Excellency presided at all the meetings. 

 Members, 



The total numer of members at date is 

 981, an advance of 70 over last year's 

 number. Actually 110 new members 

 joined the Society, but 40 names had to 

 be removed from the list for various 

 reasons. 



The Society has lost a valuable mem- 

 ber, who rendered it much service that 

 did not come to public notice, by the 

 lamented death of the Hon. Mr. Nicolle. 

 Changes. 



The place of Mr. H. T. S. Ward, who 

 retired from the service of the Colony, 

 has been taken by Mr. R. W. Smith. The 

 temporary vacancy created by Mr. F. 

 Beven's absence in England is being filled 

 by the Hon. Mr. Jas. van Langenberg. 

 In the North-Central Province Mr. Simon 

 Dabre has displaced Mr. Sampander ; 

 in the Southern Province Mr. V. S. 

 Wickremanayake has been appointed to 

 represent Tangalla, Dr. Willis went on 

 leave in April last, and Mr. R. H. Lock 

 is acting for him as Organizing Vice- 

 President and Editor of the " Tropical 

 Agriculturist and Magazine of the Ceylon 

 Agricultural Society." 



Inspections. 

 The Organizing Vice-President aud 

 the Secretary, severally and together, 



