THE LA W OF LIKENESS, AXD ITS WORKING. 225 



most highly organised plants. Each cell, possessed thus of 

 vital powers, may further be regarded as correlating itself 

 with the life of the body at large, in that it is capable of 

 throwing off minute particles of its substance. These 

 particles, named gemmules, may be supposed to circulate 

 freely through the system, and when duly nourished are 

 regarded as being capable of developing into cells resembling 

 those from which they were derived. These gemmules are 

 further supposed to be thrown off from cells at every stage 

 of the development and growth of a living being. More 

 especially do they aggregate together to form the germ, or 

 the materials from which the germ is formed. Transmitted 

 thus from parent to offspring, the latter may be regarded as 

 potentially composed of the gemmules derived from its 

 parent, which, like the organic molecules of Buffon, are 

 charged with reproducing, in the young form, the characters 

 they have acquired from the parent. 



Regarded from a physiological stand-point, this explana- 

 tion of the transmission of likeness from parent to offspring 

 appears, it must be owned, to present no difficulties of very 

 formidable kind. Scientific evidence regarding the functions 

 and properties of cells is thoroughly in agreement with the 

 theory, as far as the behaviour of these bodily units is 

 concerned. The exercise of scientific faith and the weighing 

 of probabilities commence with the assumption of the 

 development of the gemmules from the cells ; and it may be 

 asked if the belief that these gemmules are capable of 

 transmission and aggregation as held by this theory, is one 

 inconsistent with the tenets and discoveries of biological 

 science at large. If we inquire regarding the feasibility of 

 the mere existence of such minute gemmules, we shall find 

 that physical science opposes no barrier to the favourable 

 reception of such an idea. The inconceivably minute size 

 of the particles given off from a grain of musk, for example, 

 which scents a room for years without losing so much of its 

 substance as can be determined by the most acute physical 

 tests, lies beyond the furthest limit even of the scientific 



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