mmense activity elsewhere the neglect which befel
the special physiology of Descent, or Genetics as we now call it, is
astonishing. This may of course be interpreted as meaning that the
favoured studies seemed to promise a quicker return for effort, but it
would be more true to say that those who chose these other pursuits did
so without making any such comparison; for the idea that the physiology
of Heredity and Variation was a coherent science, offering possibilities
of extraordinary discovery, was not present to their minds at all. In
a word, the existence of such a science was well nigh forgotten. It is
true that in ancillary periodicals, as for example those that treat of
entomology or horticulture, or in the writings of the already isolated
systematists (This isolation of the systematists is the one most
melancholy sequela of Darwinism. It seems an irony that we should
read in the peroration to the "Origin" that when the Darwinian view
is accepted "Systematists will be able to pursue their labours as at
present; but they will not be incessantly haunted by the shadowy doubt
whether this or that form be a true species. This, I feel sure, and I
speak after experience, will be no slight relief. The endless disputes
whether or not some fifty species of British brambles are good species
will cease." "Origin", 6th edition (1882), page 425. True they have
ceased to attract the attention of those who lead opinion, but anyone
who will turn to the literature of systematics will find that they have
not ceased in any other sense. Should there not be something disquieting
in the fact that among the workers who come most into contact with
specific differences, are to be found the only men who have failed to
be persuaded of the unreality of those differences?), observations with
this special bearing were from time to time related, but the class of
fact on which Darwin built his conceptions of Heredity and Variation was
not seen in the highways of biology. It formed no part of the official
curriculum of biological students, and found no place among the subjects
which their teachers were investigating.

During this period nevertheless one distinct advance was made, that
with which Weismann's name is prominently connected. In Darwin's genetic
scheme the hereditary transmission of parental experience and its
consequences played a considerable role. Exactly how great that role was
supposed to be, he with his habitual caution refrained