In Bateson's opinion the origin of a new dominant is a much more difficult problem. In 1913 he discussed the question in his Silliman Lectures. [Footnote: _Problems of Genetics_, Oxford Univ. Press, 1913.] He considers the difficulty is equally hopeless whether we imagine the dominants to be due to some change internal to the organism or to the assumption of something from without. Accounts of the origin of new dominants under observation in plants usually prove to be open to the suspicion that the plant was introduced by some accident, or that it arose from a previous cross, or that it was due to the meeting of complementary factors. In medical literature, however, there are numerous records of the spontaneous origin of various abnormalities which behave as dominants, such as brachydactyly, and Bateson considers the authenticity of some of these to be beyond doubt. He concludes that it is impossible in the present state of knowledge to offer any explanation of the origin of dominant characters. In a note, however, he suggests the possibility that there are no such things as new dominants. Factors have been discovered which simply inhibit or prevent the development of other characters. For example, the white of the plumage in the White Leghorn fowl is due to an inhibiting factor which prevents the development of the colour factor which is also present. Withdraw the dominant inhibiting factor, and the colour shows itself. This is shown by crossing the dominant white with a recessive white, when some birds of the F(2) generation are coloured.[Footnote: Bateson, _Principles of Heredity_, p. 104.] Similarly, brachydactyly in man may be due to the loss of an inhibiting factor which prevents it appearing in normal persons. It is evident, however, that it is difficult to apply this suggestion to all cases. For example, the White Leghorn fowl must have descended from a coloured form, probably from the wild species _Gallus bankiva_. If Bateson's suggestion were valid we should have to suppose that the loss of the factor for colour caused the dominant white to appear, and then when this is withdrawn colour appears again, so that the colour factors and the inhibiting factors must lie over one another in a kind of stratified alternation. And then how should we account for the recessive white?