Mendelism and evolution / by E.B. Ford.

  • Ford, E. B. (Edmund Briscoe), 1901-1988.
Date:
1931
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Credit: Mendelism and evolution / by E.B. Ford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CHAPTER III EXPERIMENTAL GENETICS AND ITS BEARING ON EVOLUTION NY attempt to apply the results of experimental genetics to the study of evolution has generally provoked a storm of criticism. Among numerous theories of inheritance, Mendelism alone stands out as susceptible of proof and of exact study. Its operation has been demonstrated in the most diverse groups of living organisms, and there are in reality considerations which point rather strongly to the conclusion that it is responsible for the bulk of hereditary variation. Yet it is to the application of this theory that so much exception is taken. It is a matter of great importance, then, to examine why the value of so imposing a body of facts as that presented by the Mendelian phenomena should seriously be called in question when applied to the solution of evolutionary problems. It must at once be obvious to anyone who has given the matter attention that the characters studied by geneticists do in fact differ fundamentally from those which appear to be responsible for evolutionary pro¬ gress in nature. It will be valuable to consider this criticism in detail and to determine in how far it is justified. 1. The Phenotypic Effects of Mutation It may be said that all genetic factors which have arisen by mutation in the laboratory have certain 43
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