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Hormones and Heredity: A Discussion of the Evolution of Adaptations and the Evolution of Species

Abstract

IT would be no exaggeration to say that holes could be picked in any theory of heredity as yet put forward. The problem is one of great difficulty and complexity, and when we think of the enormous number of qualities or “factors ”conveyed in the minute space of an ovum, or still more in a single sperm-cell, it seems at first sight impossible to believe that all these qualities are “represented,”rather than that the presence of certain of them, which might be called “key-factors,”imply the development of numerous others. But, however this may be, the thought suggests itself that perhaps the knowledge we possess of the nature of protoplasmic structure and function is not yet sufficiently advanced to warrant the statement of any theory professing to be adequate. We are, indeed, in some doubt even with respect to certain fundamental facts. As will have been clear to readers of the correspondence in these columns, in which Sir Archdall Reid and others have taken part, the actual meaning of many of the terms used is in dispute.

Hormones and Heredity: A Discussion of the Evolution of Adaptations and the Evolution of Species.

By Dr. J. T. Cunningham. Pp. xx + 246 + 3 plates. (London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1921.) 24s.

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BAYLISS, W. Hormones and Heredity: A Discussion of the Evolution of Adaptations and the Evolution of Species . Nature 109, 35–37 (1922). https://doi.org/10.1038/109035a0

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