Elemente der exakten Erblichkeitslehre

Abstract

WITHIN the last few years the output of exact experimental work upon phenomena of heredity has been very large, and the progress made, as compared with that of the previous forty years, has been astounding. In England it has chiefly been produced by investigator? who have strictly segregated themselves either to the Mendelian or the bio-metrical schools, and who as a rule seem unable to icalise the merits of the work of their rivals. One may pause in astonishment on reading, in a recent work issued by the head of the Mendelian school, that Of the so-called investigations of heredity pursued by extensions of Gallon's non-analytical method and promoted by Prof. Pearson and the English bio-metrical school it is now scarcely necessary to speak. That such work may ultimately contribute to the development of statistical theory cannot be denied, but as applied to the problems “of heredity the effort has resulted only in the concealment of that order which it was ostensibly undertaken to reveal. … With the discovery of segregation, it became obvious that methods dispensing with individual analysis of the material are useless.” Elemente der exakten Erblichkeitslehre. Deutsche wesentlich Erweiterte Ausgabe in Fünfundzwanzig Vorlesungen. By W. Johannsen. Pp. vi + 516. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1909.) Price 9 marks.