Heredity / by J.A.S. Watson.

  • James Anderson Scott Watson
Date:
[1912]
Catalogue details

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

Credit: Heredity / by J.A.S. Watson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    INTRODUCTION 11 It is within the last twenty years or so that the real development of the subject, as an exact science, has begun ; and it is not too much to say that more real progress has been made since 1900 than had been made altogether before. Much certainly remains to be dis¬ covered, and the answers to many important questions are still unknown or under dispute. It must also be admitted that the very rapidity of progress, especially as it has been made along different hnes of investiga¬ tion, has tended to throw our ideas into confusion. Yet many facts which appeared contradictory have proved to be consistent ; order is appearing amid the Jungle of facts. It is a fact, which must have been observed very early in the history of humanity, that like tends to produce Ике. It may also be said that no two creatures are ever exactly alike. It is the object of the study of heredity to discover the nature and the causes both of the resemblances and of the differences between con¬ secutive generations. The subject is attractive for its own sake, as other sciences are ; it is also important by virtue of its bearing on the improvement of the races of economic plants and animals ; and there is little doubt that the science will ultimately prove of service by showing the road to a betterment in the inborn characters of man himseK. V