The Unit Character in Genetics

Abstract

IN his British Association address on “The General Nature of the Gene Concept”¹, Prof. R. Ruggles Gates states that “the conception of the unit character was given up many years ago”. It is hard to let this fertile conception go without a word to be said for it, even though it may be ineffectual. If the conception of the unit character is not wholly true in its original connotation, it cannot be wholly false since man himself has been spoken of as a “rational animal”, denoting an individual unit of the highest degree of complexity. The cuticular bristles of arthropods are structures of their own kind, that is to say, they are homologous, whether transformed into tactile, olfactory, natatory setæ, supporting spines or prehensile hooks. They may be regarded as units of the first order, although they possess such different potentialities, to which may be added the qualities of position, colour and size.