The methods and scope of genetics : an inaugural lecture delivered 23 October 1908 / by W. Bateson.

  • Bateson, William, 1861-1926.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The methods and scope of genetics : an inaugural lecture delivered 23 October 1908 / by W. Bateson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    therefore the chemical and the geometrical phenomena of heredity must be inter-related. Some one will say perhaps this is all yery well as a scientific curiosity, but it has nothing to do with real life. The right answer to such criticism is of course the lofty one that science and its applications are distinct: that the investigator fixes his gaze solely on the search for truth and that his attention must not be distracted by trivialities of application. But while we make this answer and at least try to work in the spirit it proclaims, we know in our hearts that it is a counsel of perfection. I suspect that even the astronomer who at his spectroscope is analysing the composition of Vega or Capella has still an eye sometimes free for the affairs of this planet, and at least the fact that his discoveries may throw light on our destinies does not diminish his zeal in their pursuit. And surely to the study of Heredity,