T H E 
NEW PHYTOIiOGIST. 
Vol. VIII., Nos. 5 & 6. June 30 TH, 1909 . 
RECENT ADVANCES IN THE STUDY OF HEREDITY. 
(A Course of Lectures, for the University of London, delivered in the 
Summer Term, 1909). 
By A. D. Darbishire. 
LECTURE I. 
On the Changes which have taken place in our 
Conception of the Relation between successive 
Generations of Organisms. 
W HEN I first undertook to give this course of lectures I 
endeavoured, in planning the subject-matter to be dealt 
with, to confine myself strictly within the limits prescribed by the 
title of the course, “ Recent Advances in the Study of Heredity”; 
but I soon found that it was impossible to explain the full interest 
and significance of recent work if the theories which are now 
receiving general credence were not considered in relation to those 
which preceded them. 
I therefore propose in this first lecture to trace, in outline, the 
history of the phases through which the problem of inheritance has 
passed. 
Moreover, it seems to me that it is only by travelling over 
again, as swiftly as may be, the tracks which have led us to the 
points we have now reached that we can see how the land lies and 
thus obtain some idea of the directions in which present methods 
of investigation are leading us. 
I further submit that if we attack the subject as if it were a 
living and growing organism we shall attain to a truer conception of 
our relation to the phenomena which we are investigating than we 
should do if we shut our eyes to everything that has happened before, 
or may happen after, a narrow strip of time. 
