344 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWIN 



Here, again, Darwin reached independently 

 an hypothesis of heredity known as 'pangenesis' 

 which had been already formulated by Buffon, 

 Maupertuis, and foreshadowed by Democritus 

 and Hippocrates. Concerning Buffon's unex- 

 pected anticipation, he wrote to Huxley (1865?) , 

 to whom he had submitted his manuscript : 



I have read Buffon : whole pages are laughably like 

 mine. It is surprising how candid it makes one to see 

 one's views in another man's words. . . . Neverthe- 

 less, there is a fundamental distinction between Buf- 

 fon's views and mine. He does not suppose that each 

 cell or atom of tissue throws off a little bud. 



Among Darwin's last words upon the factors 

 of Evolution are those in the sixth edition of the 

 Origin of Species} In the modification of spe- 

 cies he refers as causes, successively to his own, 

 to Lamarck's, and to Buffon's factor in the fol- 

 lowing clear language: 



This has been effected chiefly through the natural 

 selection of numerous, successive, slight, favourable 

 variations ; aided in an important manner by the in- 

 herited effects of the use and disuse of parts; and 

 in an unimportant manner — that is, in relation to 

 adaptive structures, whether past or present — by the 

 direct action of external conditions, and by variations 

 which seem to us in our ignorance to arise spon- 

 taneously. 



11880, p. 424. 



