CHROMOSOMES AND GENES
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
I have been asked to report here upon my present views on the problem of “Chromosomes and Genes.” I emphasize the words “present views” and explain the reason for this by the quotation of an autobiographical remark by Darwin: “I have steadily endeavoured to keep my mind free so as to give up any hypothesis, however much beloved, (and I can not resist forming one on every subject) as soon as facts are shown to be opposed to it.”
I not only appropriate these lines, but also recommend them to those who think one can oppose new ideas not by better ones but by playing them down and even covering them with silence. Fortunately there is a cure for backward turned heads which in the long run always succeeds, namely more and more facts and honest discussion.
While thus introducing my report with a statement of willingness to learn, I...
