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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    Mendelian analysis of these facts shows that colour-blindness is due, not, as might have been supposed, to the absence of some- thing from the composition of the body, but to the presence of something which affects the sight. Just as nicotine-poisoning can paralyse the colour sense, so may we conceive the development of a secretion in the body which has a similar action. The comparative exemption of the woman must therefore mean that there is in her a positive factor which counteracts the colour-blindness factor, and it is not improbable that the counteracting element is no other than the femaleness- factor itself I think I have said enough to prove that after all, those curiosities collected from ob- servation of Sweet Peas and Canaries have no remote bearing on some very fascinating problems of human life.