128 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



In more senses than one Mr. Darwin has drawn 

 heavily upon the scientific tolerance of his age. He 

 has drawn heavily upon time in his development of 

 species, and he has drawn adventurously upon matter in 

 his theory of pangenesis. According to this theory, a 

 germ, already microscopic, is a world of minor germs. 

 Not only is the organism as a whole wrapped up in the 

 germ, but every organ of the organism has there its 

 special seed. This, I say, is an adventurous draft on 

 the power of matter to divide itself and distribute its 

 forces. But, unless we are perfectly sure that he is 

 overstepping the bounds of reason, that he is unwittingly 

 sinning against observed fact or demonstrated law for 

 a mind like that of Darwin can never sin wittingly 

 against either fact or law we ought, I think, to be 

 cautious in limiting his intellectual horizon. If there 

 be the least doubt in the matter, it ought to be given 

 in favour of the freedom of such a mind. To it a vast 

 possibility is in itself a dynamic power, though the pos- 

 sibility may never be drawn upon. It gives me plea- 

 sure to think that the facts and reasonings of this 

 discourse tend rather towards the justification of Mr. 

 Darwin, than towards his condemnation ; for they seem 

 to show the perfect competence of matter and force, as 

 regards divisibility and distribution, to bear the heaviest 

 strain that he has hitherto imposed upon them. 



In the case of Mr. Darwin, observation, imagination, 

 and reason combined have run back with wonderful 

 sagacity and success over a certain length of the line 



protoplasm is homogeneous. Hyaline though it may appear, we are 

 not at present able to assign any limit to its complexity of struc- 

 ture.' Burdon Sanderson, in the 'British Medical Journal,' January 

 16, 1875. 



We have here scientific insight, and its correlative caution. In 

 fact Dr. Sanderson's important researches are a continued illus- 

 tration of the position laid down above. 



