Darwin's Pangenesis 63 



rent opinion, and not as his own discovery. He even 

 hoped to be able to identify his idea with Spencer's 

 theory. 28 But so little did this view prevail that his critics 

 have separated it only in a few instances from the ancil- 

 lary hypotheses, and most of them have rejected the 

 fundamental thought, together with these secondary as- 

 sumptions. But let us proceed to analyze Darwin's 

 theory. 



10. Darwin's Pangenesis 29 



As already mentioned in the Introduction, the so- 

 called provisional hypothesis of pangenesis consists, in my 

 opinion, of the two following parts : 



I. In the cells there are numberless particles which 

 differ from each other, and represent the individual cells, 

 organs, functions and qualities of the whole individual. 



These particles are much larger than the chemical 

 molecules, and smaller than the smallest known organ- 

 isms; 30 yet they are for the most part comparable to the 

 latter, because, like them, they can divide and multiply 

 through nutrition and growth. 



They can remain latent through countless generations, 

 and then multiply only relatively slowly, and at some 

 later time they may again become active and develop ap- 

 parently lost characte/s (atavism). 



They are transmitted, during cell-division, to the 

 daughter-cells : this is the ordinary process of heredity. 



II. In addition to this, the cells of the organism, at 

 every stage of development, throw off such particles, 



28 Darwin, C. The Variation of Animals and Plants. 2: 371, note. 



29 I have already brought together the most important parts of 

 this paragraph in the Introduction (pp. 3-7) ; but a repetition cannot 

 be easily avoided. 



30 Darwin, C. loc. cit. 2: 372. 



