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William Bateson (born August 8, 1861, Whitby, Yorkshire, England; died February 8, 1926, London), was a biologist who founded and named the science of genetics, and whose experimental and theoretical studies provided the basis of our modern understanding of heredity. A dedicated evolutionist, he cited embryo studies to support his contention in 1885 that chordates evolved from primitive echinoderms, a view now widely accepted. In 1894 he proposed in his major study - Materials for the Study of Variation - that species could not originate through continuous character variation (as proposed by Darwin), since distinct features often appeared or disappeared suddenly in plants and animals. Realizing that discontinuous variation could be understood only after something was known about the inheritance of traits, Bateson began work on the experimental breeding of plants and animals.

In 1866 an article had appeared describing experiments with plant hybrids carried out in Moravia (part of today’s Czech Republic) by a monk, Gregor Mendel. Sadly, the article was overlooked until discovered in 1900 by three continental botanists who had been carrying out similar studies (Hugo de Vries, Carl Correns, and Erich Tschermak von Seysenegg). Bateson found that his own breeding results were explained perfectly by Mendel’s paper and that the monk had succinctly described the transmission of elements governing heritable traits (today’s genes).

With the assistance of Charles Druery, Bateson translated Mendel’s paper into English and introduced much of the terminology now familiar to geneticists. Then began a long, hard, struggle, to gain an acceptance of Mendelism against the fierce opposition of the mathematical biologists (“biometricians”). He published, with Rebecca Saunders and Reginald Punnett, the results of a series of breeding experiments that not only extended Mendel’s principles to animals (poultry), but also showed that certain features were consistently inherited together. This phenomenon, which came to be termed “linkage,” is now known to be the result of the occurrence of genes located in close proximity on the same chromosome. Bateson’s experiments also demonstrated a dependence of certain characters on two or more genes. He was initially sceptical of the above interpretation of linkage advanced by the geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan. However, his own incorrect linkage theory does explain aspects of certain inherited diseases (e.g. dwarfism).

Bateson was appointed Professor of Biology at the University of Cambridge in 1908. He left this chair in 1910 to spend the rest of his life directing the John Innes Horticultural Institution at Merton, South London (later moved to Norwich), where it was the major national centre for genetic research. His books include Mendel’s Principles of Heredity: a Defence (1902), Mendel’s Principles of Heredity 1909) and Problems of Genetics (1913).

The Land Boards for the Hesse, Nassau, Luneburg and Mecklenburg Districts were established in 1789 to grant certificates of location to the early settlers in what shortly became the province of Upper Canada. The Boards were formally abolished in 1794, when the procedures for the management of land grants came under centralized control through the Executive Council Office.

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The Queen's University Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology traces its history to the founding of the Faculty of Medicine in 1855, when J.P. Litchfield was appointed Professor of Midwifery and Forensic and State Medicine. When Queen's officials discovered to their shock that Litchfield was not qualified to teach midwifery - indeed, he had never even attended a birth - they removed him from his post.

He was replaced in 1861 by Michael Lavell, who held the post of Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children. Obstetrics and Gynaecology were taught in conjunction with Children's Medicine until well into this century. The Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology was established as a separate unit in 1928.

Today, the department is centred in Kingston General Hospital, where practising faculty provide care for patients, conduct research, and teach. Major changes over the years include the expansion of pre-natal care and the development of a birthing centre in the hospital.

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Founded in 1919, The Canadian Federation of University Women, is a voluntary, non-profit, self-funded bilingual organization of over 10,000 women university graduates. CFUW/FCFDU members are active in public affairs, working to raise the social, economic and legal status of women, as well as to improve education, the environment, peace, justice and human rights. Members belong to 122 clubs in every province in Canada. CFUW/FCFDU is one of the 71 member affiliates of the International Federation of University Women (IFUW/FIFDU) and its 180,000 members. CFUW/FCFDU is a Non-Government Organization in consultative status with the United Nations (ECOSOC).

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Oyer and Terminer is the name of a court authorized to hear and determine all treasons, felonies and misdemeanors; and, generally, invested with other power in relation to the punishment of offenders. Commissions of Oyer and Terminer and General Gaol Delivery were issued to the senior judiciary, generally one or more of the Justices or Judges of the Court(s) of King's/Queen's Bench, sometimes along with senior Justices of the Peace. Members of the Courts were usually referred to as Commissioners.
In Upper Canada the jurisdiction of the courts were generally specified by the commissions that established them. In the case of Courts of Oyer and Terminer it extended in practice to all major pending criminal cases for a particular district that were not under the usual jurisdiction of the Courts of Quarter Sessions of the Peace. This meant that the Courts had the same criminal jurisdiction as the Court(s) of King's Bench, and were effectively extensions of the criminal terms of the latter. During the Rebellions of 1837-38, an 1838 ordinance allowed the governor to establish special Courts of Oyer and Terminer where no Courts of King's Bench were in operation, with jurisdiction over high treason, misprision (concealment) of high treason, treasonable practices, sedition, arson, and murder, committed in any district.