184 CHARLES DARWIN. 



To Asa Gray, May 8th [1868]. 



"Your article in the Nation [March 19th] seems to me 

 very good, and you give an excellent idea of Pangenesis — 

 an infant cherished by few as yet, except bis tender parent, 

 but which will live a long life. There is parental presumption 

 for you ! " 



To E. Bay Lankester, March 16th [1870]. 



"I was pleased to see you refer* to my much despised 

 child, 'Pangenesis,' who I think will some day, under some 

 better nurse, turn out a fine stripling." 



To Wallace, August 28th, 1872. 



"Notwithstanding all his [Dr. Bastian's] sneers I do not 

 strike my colours as yet about Pangenesis." 



In the second edition of "Animals and Plants," 

 Beale's criticism of the hypothesis is alluded to with 

 characteristic candour and humour : — " Dr. Lionel 

 Beale (Nature, May 11th, 1871, p. 26) sneers at the 

 whole doctrine with much acerbity and some justice." 

 Galton's paper before the Boyal Society (March 30th, 

 1871), upon the results of inter-transfusion of blood 

 as destructive of pangenesis, was answered by Darwin 

 in Nature (April 27th, 1871). He did "not allow 

 that pangenesis has as yet received its death-blow, 

 though from presenting so many vulnerable points 

 its life is always in jeopardy." 



Galton had argued that the gemmules present in 

 the blood of one individual would be expected to pass 

 into the other individual and to produce hereditary 



* In " Comparative Longevity." 



