The Law of Johannsen

Abstract

The way in which an organism develops, determines its qualities, and in the end the behaviour of an organism under the opportunities given by its environment depends upon the reaction of its cells upon their immediate environment. This reaction of cells, in so far that it is different from that of cells of other organisms, is dependent upon their constitution, chemical and physical. And ultimately, we think of this constitution of the cells, as given in the set of genes inherited in the original cell or cell-complex from which the organism grew up.