Bücher der Reihe Kern- und Zellteilung

Introduction When the study of heredity and variation first came to be treated as a scientific subject-and this, one must remember, was only just over a hundred years ago-there was an unfortunate separation between the disciplines of cytology and experimental breeding.

If like is to beget like, however, any genetic change which occurs during development must be undone, or else germinal units preserved from change must be set aside. As far as is known, genetic changes, even those involving only quantity or relative amounts, are reversible to only a very limited extent so that a change once done cannot be undone.