I trust what I have written has convinced the reader that we are, as was said in opening, at last beginning to move. Professor Weldon declares he has “no wish to belittle the importance of Mendel’s achievement”; he desires “simply to call attention to a series of facts which seem to him to suggest fruitful lines of inquiry.” In this purpose I venture to assist him, for I am disposed to think that unaided he is—to borrow Horace Walpole’s phrase—about as likely to light a fire with a wet dish-clout as to kindle interest in Mendel’s discoveries by his tempered appreciation. If I have helped a little in this cause my time has not been wasted.
In these pages I have only touched the edge of that new country which is stretching out before us, whence in ten years’ time we shall look back on the present days of our captivity. Soon every science that deals with animals and plants will be teeming with discovery, made possible by Mendel’s work. The breeder, whether of plants or of animals, no longer trudging in the old paths of tradition, will be second only to the chemist in resource and in foresight. Each conception of life in which heredity bears a part—and which of them is exempt?—must change before the coming rush of facts.