The vicissitude or mutations in the superior globe are
no fit matter for this present argument. --Bacon.
2. (Biol.)
(a) As now employed (first by de Vries), a sudden
variation (the offspring differing from its parents in
some well-marked character or characters) as
distinguished from a gradual variations in which the
new characters become fully developed only in the
course of many generations. The occurrence of
mutations, and the hereditary transmission, under some
conditions, of the characters so appearing, are
well-established facts; whether the process has played
an important part in the evolution of the existing
species and other groups of organisms is a disputed
question.
(b) The result of the above process; a suddenly produced
variation.