Prometheus, or, biology and the advancement of man / by H.S. Jennings.

  • Herbert Spencer Jennings
Date:
[1925]
Catalogue details

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

Credit: Prometheus, or, biology and the advancement of man / by H.S. Jennings. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE ADVANCEMENT OF MAN separates repeatedly into two halves ; each half unites with a corresponding half from another individual to make a new combination for the next genera¬ tion. From each new combination of the strands an outgrowth appears ; this is what we call an individual. But this outgrowth is not permanent. After a time it decays and drops off, while the combination of genes that formed it separates and passes into new combina¬ tions, yielding new individuals. Thus upon this great immortal vine the individuals hang hke grapes from a pergola, each individual constituted of all the strands that the netted vine happens to have at that point. What the fruit becomes depends, under given conditions, upon which of the strands go into it ; size, form, colour, structure, vigour, activity, type of behaviour, F [8l]