Genetics, medicine, and man / H. J. Muller, C. C. Little , Laurence H. Snyder.
- Hermann Joseph Muller
- Date:
- 1947
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Credit: Genetics, medicine, and man / H. J. Muller, C. C. Little , Laurence H. Snyder. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![GENETICS, MEDICINE, AND MAN which is not true for most other features, the elements of sexual reproduction are not merely products of evolution but actually organs of evolution. We shall see that the function of these proc¬ esses does not lie in the advantage they give to the individual organism, or even to its immediate descendants, but only in the role they play in making its speedier evolution possible. We may not, ourselves, wish to look ahead many generations in ordering our affairs. But, in a sense, nature does so, and the whole process of generation through male and female, with all the sexual life that it implies, has been bequeathed to us solely because of the poten¬ tialities for faster evolution that it carries with it. If we would rightly understand ourselves, then, and the ways of nature with us in the long run, we must turn our attention to the remarkable interplay of gene material in its passage through the generations, brought about by this peculiar method. It is these matters which we shall seek to consider, still in elementary form, in the ensuing chapter. REFERENCES [See end of Chapter П.] 34](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b18029152_0051.JP2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
