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To Mendel has often been attributed the good luck or good judgment of choosing for study traits that were clearly alternative characters and that were free of environmental influence. Galton, on the other hand, studied characteristics that were complex and that often had the potential for alteration by the environment, so-called multifactorial traits. The Galtonian approach, although it uses ever more sophisticated statistical and computational tools, has provided little insight into the mode of action of individual genes. It has, of course, been useful in plant and animal breeding experiments to study the contributions of both genetic and environmental variation and, as we have heard at this symposium, may help us to estimate inherited risk.

The subject of monitoring human populations for mutation has been much discussed in recent years and, I am pleased to say, some progress has been made in developing techniques and in implementing programs. Both the techniques and the programs are still very limited, and this review must still give more attention to possibilities than to existing programs.