Catholic churchmen in science. (Second series) : Sketches of the lives of Catholic ecclesiastics who were among the great founders in science / by James J. Walsh.
- James Joseph Walsh
- Date:
- 1909
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Catholic churchmen in science. (Second series) : Sketches of the lives of Catholic ecclesiastics who were among the great founders in science / by James J. Walsh. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![species are fixed within limits beyond which they cannot change/' “Although this opinion, adds Mendel, “ cannot be unconditionally accepted, we find, on the other hand, in Gartner’s experiments a noteworthy confirmation of that supposition re¬ garding the variability of cultivated plants which has already been expressed. This expression of opinion is not very definite, and Bateson, in what Professor Wilson of Columbia calls his “ recent admirable little book on Mendel’s prin¬ ciples, adds the following note that may prove of service in elucidating Mendel's meaning, as few men have entered so fully into the under¬ standing of Mendel's work as Bateson, who in¬ troduced him to the English-speaking scientific public. “ The argument of this paragraph ap¬ pears to be that though the general mutability of natural species might be doubtful, yet among cul¬ tivated plants the transference of characters may be accomplished and may occur by integral steps [italics ours], until one species is definitely ‘trans¬ formed’ into the other.” Needless to say, this is quite different from the gradual transformation of species that Darwin¬ ism or Lamarckism assumes to take place. One species becomes another per saltum in virtue of some special energy infused into it, some original tendency of its intrinsic nature, not because of gradual modification by forces outside of the organisms, nor because of the combination of in¬ fluences they are subjected to from without and within, because of tendency to evolute plus en-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31364731_0245.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
