ASSIMILATION OF OUTSIDE MATTER. 143 



conception of the existence of the spermatozoon nor 

 of the ovum, more than the spermatozoon or ovum 

 have of theirs. 



This, at least, is what I gather from Mr. Darwin's 

 provisional theory of Pangenesis ; and, again, from one 

 of the concluding sentences in his " Effects of Cross 

 and Self Fertilisation," where, asking the question 

 why two sexes have been developed, he replies that 

 the answer seems to lie " in the great good which is 

 derived from the fusion of two somewhat differentiated 

 individuals. With the exception," he continues, " 01 

 the lowest organisms this is possible only by means ot 

 the sexual elements these consisting of cells separated 

 from the body " (i.e., separated from the bodies of each 

 parent) " containing the germs of every part " (i.e., con- 

 sisting of the seeds or germs from which each individual 

 cell of the coming organism will be developed these 

 seeds or germs having been shed by each individual 

 cell of the parent forms), " and capable of being fused 

 completely together " (i.e., so at least I gather, capable of 

 being fused completely, in the same way as the cells 

 of our own bodies are fused, and thus, of forming a 

 single living personality in the case of both the male 

 and female element; which elements are themselves 

 capable of a second fusion so as to form the impreg- 

 nate ovum). This single impregnate ovum, then, is 

 a single identity that has taken the place of, and 

 come up in the room of, two distinct personalities, 

 each of whose characteristics it, to a certain extent, 

 partakes, and which consist, each one of them, of the 

 fused germs of a vast mass of other personalities. 



