306 DARWINISM STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



The second objection, which has been insisted on by 

 Delpino, is that the tissues, for instance, of a mature sala- 

 mander or crab, of which a limb has been removed, are 

 already differentiated and have passed through their 

 whole course of development ; and how can such tissues 

 in accordance with our hypothesis attract and combine 

 with the gemmules of the part which is to be reproduced ? 

 In answer to these two objections we must bear in mind 

 the evidence which has been advanced, showing that at 

 least in a large number of cases the power of regrowth 

 is a localized faculty, acquired for the sake of repairing 

 special injuries to which each particular creature is liable ; 

 and, in the case of buds or fissiparous generation, for the 

 sake of quickly multiplying the organism at a period of 

 life when it can be supported in large numbers. These 

 considerations lead us to believe that in all such cases a 

 stock of nascent cells or of partially developed gemmules 

 are retained for this special purpose either locally or 

 throughout the body, ready to combine with the gem- 

 mules derived from the cells which come next in due 

 succession. If this be admitted, we have a sufficient 

 answer to the above two objections. Anyhow, pangenesis 

 seems to throw a considerable amount of light on the 

 wonderful power of regrowth. 



EFFECT OF MORBID ACTION. 



p 392 ^ e k aye as ^ s P°k en on lj °i the removal 

 of parts, when not followed by morbid action : 

 but, when the operation is thus followed, it is certain that 

 the deficiency is sometimes inherited. In a former 

 chapter instances were given, as of a cow, the loss of 

 whose horn was followed by suppuration, and her calves 

 were destitute of a horn on the same side of their heads. 



