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Quote by William Bateson

“Of the contributions made during the essayist period three call for notice: Weismann deserves mention for his useful work in asking for the proof that "acquired characters" or, to speak more precisely, parental experience can really be transmitted to the offspring. The ocurrence of progressive adaptation by transmission of effects of use had seemed so natural to Darwin and his contemporaries that no proof of the physiological reality of the henomenon was thought necessary. Weismann's challenge revealed the utter inadequacy of the evidence on which the beliefs were based. They are doubtless isolated observations which may be interpreted as favouring the belief in these transmissions, but such meagre indications as exist are by general consent admitted to be too slight to be of much assistance in the attempt to understand how the more complex adaptive mechanisms arose.”

Quote by William Bateson

Book:Mendel's Principles of Heredity
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Mendel's Principles of Heredity

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William Bateson
William Bateson

William Bateson, born on August 8, 1861 and died on February 8, 1926, was an influential British geneticist. His contributions to the field of genetics, particularly in the concepts of genes and genetic crossing, were pivotal. Bateson's work has had a profound impact on the development of genetics. more

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