the facts brought to light by modern biological analysis, we can see in our minds an infinite line of discoveries which were not even suspected by the generations preceding us.
"Here, in a few words are the results already obtained:
They lead us to suppose the existence of essential representative particles within the germ cells of plants. These particles may be compared to the atoms which chemists suppose to exist in the inanimate world. These are the biological elements, the "organic corpuscles" as Buffon would have called them. We call them "gens." The body of the plant with its diverse characters is then only the exterior manifestation of these "determinants." We suppose, then, that each character manifested is determined by a "gen," a "determinant." To constitute an organism with its characters there must be an association of gens.
And the importance of Aaronsohn's dis-
covery, according to Professor Chodat lies in that, in wheat, "the number of types and new forms increases rapidly with the number of antagonistic characters.
"For 2 antagonistic gens there will be 4 types; for 3 gens, 8 types; for 4 gens, 16 types—and these types are constant from the second generation (in which they appeared) on.
"Here we have infinite perspectivs which appear on our new horizon.
“But to obtain these remarkable results with the desired mathematical certainty we must start with biological unity, with a pure line, with a single grain of wheat, the narent nf a urhnla Iina cımılar tn it
"From this we see the importance of Aaronsohn's discovery; it will allow us to do methodically in a few years all that, 6,000 years of cultivation and unconscious selection have gained for us and perhaps also to combine and associate characters which escaped the intuitive observation of primitive peoples."
THE ETHNIC CHARACTER OF THE JEWS
The following essay was awarded the Henrietta Szold prize for 1912, in the Prize Essay competition instituted by the Federation of American Zionists in honor of Henrietta Szold.
CHAPTER III.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE JEWS.
THE evolution of the psychosis, the soul, the individuality of a nation is analogous to the growth of the personality of a single individual. The personality of an individual at any moment in his life is the sum total of all the forces, physical, biological, and spiritual, operating from the moment of his birth, nay, even in the prenatal state, through heredity—till the last minute of observation. Personality is continually being created by each individual every day. A day passed adds a new feature to the totality, a new bend, a new curve to the combination. It is in the same light of creative evolution that the soul of a people is to be viewed. It is partly the
(Concluded.)
product of the prenatal conditions—namely, the peculiar characteristics of the racial elements, but primarily of its life history. A nation is continually creating its spiritual character. The life of a people is a con- tinuum, and no single line or point can be removed from it ‚without endangering its integrity. The ethnic soul of the Jew cannot be understood partially and no force in the world can set the stream back. No return to a certain period in Jewish history is possible. The life of the people has gone beyond that point and thus its soul has an entirely different formation. Every attempt at eliminating a certain period of Jewish history, whether good or bad, is scientifically unsound. It is in the light of four thousand years of Jewish history that the soul of Israel is to be contemplated.