CHAPTER V
INHERITANCE
Phenomena which a complete theory of inheritance must explain—In the present state of our knowledge it is not possible to formulate a complete theory of inheritance—Different kinds of inheritance—Mendel’s experiments and theory—The value and importance of Mendelism has been exaggerated—Dominance sometimes imperfect—Behaviour of the nucleus of the sexual cell—Chromosomes—Experiments of Delage and Loeb—Those of Cuénot on mice and Castle on guinea pigs—Suggested modification of the generally-accepted Mendelian formulae—Unit characters—Biological isomerism—Biological molecules—Interpretation of the phenomena of variation and heredity on the conception of biological molecules—Correlation—Summary of the conception of biological molecules.
We have seen that variations may be, firstly, either acquired or congenital, and, secondly, fluctuating or discontinuous. We have further seen that acquired variations—at all events in the higher animals—do not appear to be inherited, and therefore have not played a very important part in the evolution of the animal world. Discontinuous congenital variations or mutations are the usual starting points of new species. It is not unlikely that fluctuating congenital variations, although they do not appear to give rise directly to new species, may play a considerable part in the making of new species, inasmuch as they may, so to speak, pave the way for mutations.
We are now in a position to consider the exceedingly difficult question of inheritance. We know that offspring tend to resemble their parents, but that they are always a little different both from either parent and from one another. How are we to account for these phenomena? What are the laws of inheritance, whereby a child tends to inherit the peculiarities of its parents, and what are the causes of variation which make children differ inter se and from their parents?
Scores of theories of inheritance have been advanced. It is scarcely exaggerating to assert that almost every biologist who has paid much attention to the subject has a theory of inheritance which differs more or less greatly from the theory held by any other biologist.
As regards the phenomena of heredity we may say Tot homines tot sententiæ.
Phenomena of Inheritance
For this state of affairs there is a good and sufficient reason. We are not yet in possession of a sufficient number of facts to be in a position to formulate a satisfactory theory of inheritance. A complete theory of heredity must explain, among other things, the following phenomena:—
1. Why creatures show a general resemblance to their parents.
2. Why they differ from their parents.