INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEMS OF HEREDITY AND THEIR SOLUTION

Summary

An exact determination of the laws of heredity will probably work more change in man's outlook on the world, and in his power over nature, than any other advance in natural knowledge that can be clearly foreseen.

There is no doubt whatever that these laws can be determined. In comparison with the labour that has been needed for other great discoveries we may even expect that the necessary effort will be small. It is rather remarkable that while in other branches of physiology such great progress has of late been made, our knowledge of the phenomena of heredity has increased but little; though that these phenomena constitute the basis of all evolutionary science and the very central problem of natural history is admitted by all. Nor is this due to the special difficulty of such inquiries so much as to general neglect of the subject.

It is in the hope of inducing others to follow these lines of investigation that I take the problems of heredity as the subject of this lecture to the Royal Horticultural Society.

No one has better opportunities of pursuing such work than horticulturists and stock breeders. They are daily witnesses of the phenomena of heredity. Their success also depends largely on a knowledge of its laws, and obviously every increase in that knowledge is of direct and special importance to them.