ch. xiv.] 18611871. 281 



that after eight years of expectation, all they got was a mass 

 of detail about pigeons, rabbits and silkworms. But the 

 true critics welcomed it as an expansion with unrivalled 

 wealth of illustration of a section of the Origin. Variation 

 under the influence of man was the only subject (except the 

 question of man's origin) which he was able to deal with in 

 detail so as to utilise his full stores of knowledge. When 

 w r e remember how important for his argument is a knowl- 

 edge of the action of artificial selection, we may well rejoice 

 that this subject was chosen by him for amplification. 



In 1864, he wrote to Sir Joseph Hooker : 



" I have begun looking over my old MS., and it is as 

 fresh as if I had never written it ; parts are astonishingly 

 dull, but yet worth printing, I think ; and other parts strike 

 me as very good. I am a complete millionaire in odd and 

 curious little facts, and I have been really astounded at my 

 own industry whilst reading my chapters on Inheritance 

 and Selection. God knows when the book will ever be com- 

 pleted, for I find that I am very weak, and on my best days 

 cannot do more than one or one and a half hours' work. 

 It is a good deal harder than writing about my dear climb- 

 ing plants." 



In Aug. 1867, when Lyell was reading the proofs of the 

 book, my father wrote : 



" I thank you cordially for your last two letters. The 

 former one did me real good, for I had got so wearied with 

 the subject that I could hardly bear to correct the proofs, 

 and you gave me fresh heart. I remember thinking that 

 when you came to the Pigeon chapter you would pass it 

 over as quite unreadable. I have been particularly pleased 

 that you have noticed Pangenesis. I do not know whether 

 you ever had the feeling of having thought so much over a 

 subject that you had lost all power of judging it. This is 

 my case with Pangenesis (which is 26 or 27 years old), but 

 I am inclined to think that if it be admitted as a probable 

 hypothesis it will be a somewhat important step in Bi- 

 ology." 



His theory of Pangenesis, by w T hich he attempted to ex- 

 plain " how the characters of the parents are ' photographed ' 

 on the child, by means of material atoms derived from each 

 cell in both parents, and developed in the child," has never 

 met with much acceptance. Nevertheless, some of his con- 

 temporaries felt with him about it. Thus in February 1868, 

 he WTote to Hooker : 



