18441858] PARTHENOGENESIS 103 



do not come the mild Hindoo (whatever he may be) to Owen ; Letter 57 

 your father confessor trembles for you. I fancy Owen thinks 

 much of this doctrine of his ; I never from the first believed 

 it, and I cannot but think that the same power is concerned 

 in producing aphides without fertilisation, and producing, for 

 instance, nails on the amputated stump of a man's fingers, or 

 the new tail of a lizard. By the way, I saw somewhere during 

 the last week or so a statement of a man rearing from the 

 same set of eggs winged and wingless aphides, which seemed 

 new to me. Does not some Yankee say that the American 

 viviparous aphides are winged ? I am particularly glad that 

 you are ruminating on the act of fertilisation : it has long 

 seemed to me the most wonderful and curious of physiological 

 problems. I have often and often speculated for amusement 

 on the subject, but quite fruitlessly. Do you not think that 

 the conjugation of the Diatomaceae will ultimately throw light 

 on the subject ? But the other day I came to the conclusion 

 that some day we shall have cases of young being produced 

 from spermatozoa or pollen without an ovule. Approaching 

 the subject from the side which attracts me most, viz., inherit- 

 ance, I have lately been inclined to speculate, very crudely 

 and indistinctly, that propagation by true fertilisation will 

 turn out to be a sort of mixture, and not true fusion, of two 

 distinct individuals, or rather of innumerable individuals, as 

 each parent has its parents and ancestors. I can understand 

 on no other view the way in which crossed forms go back to 

 so large an extent to ancestral forms. But all this, of course, 

 is infinitely crude. I hope to be in London in the course of 

 this month, and there are two or three points which, for my 

 own sake, I 'want to discuss briefly with you. 



To T. H. Huxley. Letter 58 



Down, Sept. 26th [1857], 



Thanks for your very pleasant note. It amuses me to see 

 what a bug-bear I have made myself to you ; when having 

 written some very pungent and good sentence it must be very 

 disagreeable to have my face rise up like an ugly ghost 1 I 



when the "spermatic force" or "virtue" is exhausted fresh impregnation 

 occurs. Huxley severely criticises both Owen's facts and his theory. 



1 This probably refers to Darwin's wish to moderate a certain 

 pugnacity in Huxley. 



