Quantitative Methods in Genetic Research

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Abstract
The history of genetics is briefly reviewed, and it is shown how, in the development of Mendelism, the chromosome theory, and the conception of genotypes involving multiple factors, quantitative methods and calculation were essential. The possibilities of 3 new lines of work, in all of which some biometry is required, are then discussed: (1) "Phaenogenetics," or the analysis of gene action by intensive study of the effect of given gene-differences. This demands the cooperation of all the basic quantitative sciences; it should thereby throw much light on embryogeny and physiology but may tell us little about the nature of genes. (2) Calculations of the effects of different systems of breeding and selection, involving considerable mathematics. (3) The quantitative study of gene mutation, which is beginning to give information both about gene size and structure and about means of controlling the changes in the genes.

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