3/2 MISCELLANEA. [1875. 



ing you for the profound interest and profit with which I have 

 read your work. I remain, 



- My dear Sir, yours very faithfully, 



Ch. Darwin. 



1875. 



[The only work, not purely botanical, which occupied my 

 father in the present year was the correction of the second 

 edition of * The Variation of Animals and Plants,' and on 

 this he was engaged from the beginning of July till October 

 3rd. The rest of the year was taken up with his work on in- 

 sectivorous plants, and on cross-fertilisation, as will be shown 

 in a later chapter. The chief alterations in the second edi- 

 tion of ' Animals and Plants ' are in the eleventh chapter on 

 " Bud-variation and on certain anomalous modes of repro- 

 duction ; " the chapter on Pangenesis "was also largely al- 

 tered and remodelled." He mentions briefly some of the au- 

 thors who have noticed the doctrine. Professor Delpino's 

 ' Sulla Darwiniana Teoria della Pangenesi ' (1869), an adverse 

 but fair criticism, seems to have impressed him as valuable. 

 Of another critique my father characteristically says,* " Dr. 

 Lionel Beale ('Nature,' May 11, 1871, p. 26) sneers at the 

 whole doctrine with much acerbity and some justice." He 

 also points out that, in Mantegazza's ' Elementi di Igiene,* 

 the theory of Pangenesis was clearly foreseen. 



In connection with this subject, a letter of my father's to 

 'Nature' (April 27, 1871) should be mentioned. A paper by 

 Mr. Galton had been read before the Royal Society (March 

 30, 1871) in which were described experiments, on intertrans- 

 fusion of blood, designed to test the truth of the hypothesis 

 of pangenesis. My father, while giving all due credit to Mr. 

 Galton for his ingenious experiments, does not allow that 

 pangenesis has " as yet received its death-blow, though from 

 presenting so many vulnerable points its life is always in 

 jeopardy." 



* ' Animals and Plants,' 2nd edit. vol. ii. p. 350. 



