178 



CHAPTER XXII. 



PANGENESIS AND CONTINUITY OF THE GERM-PLASM : 

 DARWIN'S CONFIDENCE IN PANGENESIS. 



DARWIN'S letters prove that he thought very highly 

 of this hypothesis ; and whether the future determine 

 it to be true or erroneous, it must surely rank as 

 among the greatest of his intellectual efforts. In his 

 autobiography he says of it : 



"An unverified hypothesis is of little or no value; but if 

 any one should hereafter be led to make observations by which 

 some such hypothesis could be established, I shall have done 

 good service, as an astonishing number of isolated facts can be 

 thus connected together and rendered intelligible." 



The hypothesis was submitted to Huxley (May 

 27th, 1865 ?) in manuscript and alluded to in the 

 letter sent at the same time. An unfavourable reply 

 was evidently received, for we find Darwin writing to 

 Huxley, July 12th (1865 ?) : 



" I do not doubt your judgment is perfectly just, and I will 

 try to persuade myself not to publish. The whole affair is 

 much too speculative ; yet I think some such view will have 

 to be adopted, when I call to mind such facts as the inherited 

 effects of use and disuse, &c." 



This last sentence is of great interest, and the 

 same opinion comes out strongly in his published 



