82 'VARIATION UNDER DOMESTICATION.' [l868. 



abnormal transposition of organs — -to the direct action of the 

 male element on the mother plant, &c. Therefore I fully 

 believe that each cell does actually throw off an atom or 

 gemmule of its contents ; — but whether or not, this hypothesis 

 serves as a useful connecting link for various grand classes 

 of physiological facts, which at present stand absolutely 

 isolated. 



I have touched on the doubtful point (alluded to by 

 Huxley) how far atoms derived from the same cell may 

 become developed into different structure accordingly as they 

 are differently nourished ; I advanced as illustrations galls 

 and polypoid excrescences. . . . 



It is a real pleasure to me to write to you on this subject, 

 and I should be delighted if we can understand each other ; 

 but you must not let your good nature lead you on. Remem- 

 ber we always fight tooth and nail. We go to London on 

 Tuesday, first for a week to Queen Anne Street, and after- 

 wards to Miss Wedgwood's, in Regent's Park, and stay the 

 whole month, which, as my gardener truly says, is a " terrible 

 thing " for my experiments. 



C. Darwin to W. Ogle.* 



Down, March 6 [1868]. 

 DEAR Sir, — I thank you most sincerely for your letter, 

 which is very interesting to me. I wish I had known of these 

 views of Hippocrates before I had published, for they seem 

 almost identical with mine — merely a change of terms — and 

 an application of them to classes of facts necessarily unknown 

 to the old philosopher. The whole case is a good illustration 

 of how rarely anything is new. 



. . . Hippocrates has taken the wind out of my sails, but I 

 care very little about being forestalled. I advance the views 



* Dr. William Ogle, now the Superintendent of Statistics to the 

 Registrar- General. 



