Point binomials and multinomials in relation to Mendelian distributions / by John Brownlee.

  • Brownlee, John, 1868-1927.
Date:
[1912]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Point binomials and multinomials in relation to Mendelian distributions / by John Brownlee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    XXVIII.—Point Binomials and Multinomials in relation to . Mendelian Distributions. By John Brownlee, M.D., D.Sc. (Read November 20, 1911. MS. received February 16, 1912.) The subject of this paper is a consideration of the mathematics of some of the problems given by present-day developments of Mendelism. Breeding formulae are becoming more and more complex, and it seems probable that many others are yet more complex. Without a suitable mathematical analysis it will be nearly impossible to analyse some of these by direct experiment, while a suitable analysis must always render the method of experimental attack much less obscure. Some of the formulae in the present paper were calculated when I read my last paper* on this subject to this Society, but most of the developments seemed too remote from actual experimental work to render their publication useful. However, a paper published in the last number of the Journal of Genetics, by H. M. Leake, concerning the hybridisation of the cotton plant suggests that the time has come when they may prove of practical value. Before approaching the mathematics, however, I think that some remai’ks on the notation of Mendelism may be profitably made. This notation seems to me specially cumbrous. When the elements are indicated by letters they are regularly written in sequence. Thus an organism containing three pairs of elements is denoted by {aa hh cc). If this mate with another of similar constitution but different properties, (AA BB CC), all the possible combinations of these appear in the second generation, and it becomes very fatiguing to the eye and brain to read the notation. I think that it would be preferable if the different elements which can combine were written in parallel rows. We have then the two arrangements above described denoted by aa AA hb BB cc CC and when we come to consider such combinations as , aA BB , cC * “ The Inheritance of Complex Growth Forms on Mendel’s Theory,” Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. xxxi. p. 251.