PANGENESIS. 181 



fear I shall not resist ' Pangenesis,' but I assure you I will put 

 it humbly enough. The ordinary course of development of 

 beings, such as the Echinodermata, in which new organs are 

 formed at quite remote spots from the analogous previous parts, 

 seems to me extremely difficult to reconcile on any view except 

 the free diffusion in the parent of the germs or gernmules of 

 each separate new organ : and so in cases of alternate gener- 

 ation." 



To LYELL, August 22nd, 1867. 



"I have been particularly pleased that you have noticed 

 Pangenesis. I do not know whether you ever had the feeling 

 of having thought so much over a subject that you had lost all 

 power of judging it. This is my case with Pangenesis (which is 

 26 or 27 years old), but I am inclined to think that if it be 

 admitted as a probable hypothesis it will be a somewhat 

 important step in Biology." 



To ASA GRAY, October IQth, 1867. 



"The chapter on what I call Pangenesis will be called a 

 mad dream, and I shall be pretty well satisfied if you think it 

 a dream worth publishing ; but at the bottom of my own mind 

 I think it contains a great truth." 



To HOOKER, November 11 th [1867]. 



" I shall be intensely anxious to hear what you think about 

 Pangenesis ; though I can see how fearfully imperfect, even in 

 mere conjectural conclusions, it is ; yet it has been an infinite 

 satisfaction to me somehow to connect the various large groups 

 of facts, which I have long considered, by an intelligible 

 thread." 



To FRITZ MULLER, January 30th [1868]. 



" .... I should very much like to hear what you think of 

 '* Pangenesis,' though I fear it will appear to every one far too 

 speculative." 



