306 Darwin and Pangenesis. [July, 
the hypothetical “ gemmules” in the spermatozoon or ovule may 
be deficient or their nature defective; but has it yet been shown 
that in the instance first named there is any spermatozoon at all in 
existence? Would it not be more philosophical to ascertain first 
whether the material element is present or absent (we of course 
refer to the higher animals, in which the phenomenon of hybridism 
comes out most prominently) before we attempt to discuss the 
number or nature of its constituents, of which we at present know 
nothing ? 
Or in these same cases of hybridism induced by sudden captivity, 
or by divergence in nature, we would ask the author, Are the 
periodical movements and the affinities of the sexual elements already 
so well understood that it should be safe to pass them by and 
descend to the consideration of the probable effect of their hypo- 
thetical invisible constituents ? 
But, on the other hand, there can be no doubt that when the 
male and female elements are perfect and perform their proper 
functions, they do possess powers which exceed in strangeness any- 
thing that the most fertile imagination has yet invented. Just 
imagine a man with a finger wanting on one hand, and one or more 
of his children being born with the same defect! It is just within 
the range of possibility that the state of mind of the mother may 
by some mysterious influence have caused that defect to be repro- 
duced; but looking at all similar phenomena, it is far more probable 
that the defect has been communicated by the paternal male element 
to the ovum, and thus perpetuated in the embryo. 
Let us now, however, turn for a moment to the psychical 
phenomena which present themselves when we consider the tendency 
of living types to vary, and the occasional checks which are put. 
upon their divergence, and we shall find the cell-theory as little 
able to account for those as we should find a musical instrument 
capable of conveying an explanation of the passions which. its notes 
inspire in the human breast, and which nerve the arm of the warrior, 
exhausted by a weary march, or lull to rest the spirit of a fretful 
child. 
The author, as we have seen, admits that the reproductive 
elements constitute that portion of the organism in or through 
which the tendency to vary probably first manifests itself, but (if 
we understand him correctly) he attributes the change in those 
elements to altered physical conditions alone. Now, if we pass in 
review before our mind’s eye the various types of animals which 
must have succeeded each other through modified descent, we find 
that amongst the lower forms it is just possible to conceive that 
the tendency to variation in the reproductive elements might be 
the result of external physical influences alone; but this admission 
would ef itself be fatal to the application of the same theory to 
