The Fruitful Facets of Galton's Polyhedron 403
two organs, one on either side. The facility therefore with which each of
these two conditions may arise from the other by discontinuous variation is
of considerable importance (1894, p. 448).THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF DISCONTINUITY. Early in his studies, Bateson
developed an insight, a sort of epiphany in his own assessment, that would shape
his views (haunt might be a better word) throughout his career. His emphasis on
discontinuity, his dislike of Darwinism, his inability to come to terms with
chromosomal theory, all reflect this central vision of his thinking. Bateson decided
that discontinuously repeated organic structures bore isomorphic, and therefore
common causal, similarity to physical phenomena produced by waves and
vibrations. He therefore sought a physical cause for heredity in some wave-like
form of energy—the "vibratory theory" in his own words—and he could therefore
never fully accept a particulate basis for genetics. In 1891, he wrote with great
excitement to his sister, stating that he dared not even hope to have an idea of such
import ever again:
Did I tell you anything about my new vibratory theory of repetition of parts
in animals and plants? I have been turning it over again lately, and feel sure
there is something in it. It is the best idea I ever had or am likely to have—
do you see what I mean? —divisions between segments, petals, etc. are
internodal lines like those in sand figures made by sound, i.e. lines of
maximum vibratory strain, while the midsegmental lines and the petals, etc.
are the nodal lines, or places of minimum movement. Hence all the patterns
and recurrence of patterns in animals and plants—hence the perfection of
symmetry—hence bilaterally symmetrical variation, and the completeness
of repetition whether of a part repeated in a radial or linear series etc. etc. I
am, as you see, in a great fluster (in Bateson, 1928, p. 42).In his next letter, he added: "You'll see—it will be a commonplace of education,
like the multiplication table or Shakespeare, before long!"
Materials do not discuss the vibratory theme at length, if only because
Bateson chose to organize the book as a compendium of data—and he could
present no factual support for his suspicions about the production and inheritance
of discontinuous variation. Still, he advanced several conjectures about the
construction of phenotypic discontinuity from underlying continuity by a simple
physical or chemical impetus. He attempts, for example, to analogize the discrete
concentric rings of eyespots on lepidopteran wings with pond ripples
(metaphorically) and, in greater hope of causal isomorphism, with chemical
reactions:
A whole eyespot may come, or it may go ... leaving the field of the cell
plain and without a speck. The suggestion is strong that the whole series of
rings may have been formed by some one central disturbance, somewhat as
a series of concentric waves may be formed by the splash of a stone thrown
into a pool. It is especially interesting to remember that the