XIV. 



THE PROVISIONAL HYPOTHESIS OF PANGEN- 

 ESIS. 



Animals and Every one would wish to explain to h im- 

 plants under ge ]f even j n an j m p er f ec t manner, how it is 



Domestica- * r ' 



tion, vol. ii, possible for a character possessed by some re- 

 page 349. mote ancestor suddenly to reappear in the off- 

 spring ; how the effects of increased or decreased use of a 

 limb can be transmitted to the child ; how the male sex- 

 ual element can act not solely on the ovules, but occasion- 

 ally on the mother-form ; how a hybrid can be produced 

 by the union of the cellular tissue of two plants inde- 

 pendently of the organs of generation ; how a limb can 

 be reproduced on the exact line of amputation, with 

 neither too much nor too little added ; how the same 

 organism may be produced by such widely different pro- 

 cesses as budding and true seminal generation ; and, 

 lastly, how, of two allied forms, one passes in the course 

 of its development through the most complex metamor- 

 phoses, and the other does not do so, though when ma- 

 ture both are alike in every detail of structure. I am 

 aware that my view is merely a provisional hypothesis or 

 speculation ; but, until a better one be advanced, it will 

 serve to bring together a multitude of facts which are 

 at present left disconnected by any efficient cause. As 





