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. 



