446 INHERITANCE. Chap. XII 



generation, as the production of offspring like their parents. 

 This view, as we shall see in a future chapter, is not theoreti- 

 cally probable, though practically it holds good. The saying 

 that " like begets like " has, in fact, arisen from the perfect 

 confidence felt by breeders, that a superior or inferior animal 

 will generally reproduce its kind ; but this very superiority 

 or inferiority shows that the individual in question has 

 departed slightly from its type. 



The whole subject of inheritance is wonderful. When a 

 new character arises, whatever its nature may be, it generally 

 tends to be inherited, at least in a temporary and sometimes 

 in a most persistent manner. What can be more wonderful 

 than that some trifling peculiarity, not primordially attached 

 to the species, should be transmitted through the male or 

 female sexual cells, which are so minute as not to be visible 

 to the naked eye, and afterwards through the incessant 

 changes of a long course of development, undergone either in 

 the womb or in the egg, and ultimately appear in the offspring 

 when mature, or even when quite old, as in the case of certain 

 diseases ? Or again, what can be more wonderful than the 

 well-asi^ertained fact that the minute ovule of a good milking 

 cow will produce a male, from whom a cell, in union -wdth an 

 ovule, will produce a female, and she, when mature, will have 

 large mammary glands, yielding an abundant supply of milk, 

 and even milk of a particular quality? ^Nevertheless, the 

 real subject of surprise is, as Sir H. Holland has well remarked,^ 

 not that a character should be inherited, but that any should 

 ever fail to be inherited. In a future chapter, devoted to an 

 hypothesis which I have termed pangenesis, an attempt will 

 be made to show the means by which characters of all kinds 

 are transmitted from generation to geueration. 



Some writers,'^ who have not attended to natural history, 

 have attempted to show that the force of inheritance has been 

 much exaggerated. Tlie breeders of animals woiild smile at 

 such simplicity; and if they condescended to make any 



' ' Medical Notes and Reflections,' tistics. See also Mr. Bowen, Professoi 



S'-d edit., 1855, p. 267. of Moral Philosophy, in ' Pro& 



- Mr. Buckle, in his ' History of American Acad, of Sciences,' vol. t 



Civilisation,' expresses doubts on the p. 102. 

 subject, owing to the want of sta- 



