The Utility of Specific Characters

Abstract

IN his letter, published in NATURE of July 16, Prof. Lankester has formulated with great clearness his views concerning the utility of specific characters; and he explains that his chief object in doing so is to draw attention to certain statements of mine, which he declares to involve a serious logical fallacy. While I am grateful for the courtesy with which Prof. Lankester has tempered his condemnation of my logic, I am still unconvinced; and the point at issue is so important that I am anxious to state, as clearly as I can, what my own position is. I may perhaps conveniently begin by quoting in full a passage from a former paper. Last year I wrote as follows: