Mr. F. Galton's Experiments in Pangenesis. 381 



Having, then, had experience in transfusion, and teeUng myself 

 capable of managing a more complicated operation without confusion, 

 I began the series which I call w. I left my old lot of does un- 

 touched, but obtained one new doe (G(w)), which had undergone 

 the last operation, and three bucks (K (u,w), M(m,w), N (m, z(;)) 

 which had undergone both operations, u and w. On endeavouring to 

 breed from them, the result was unexpected, they appeared to have 

 become sterile. The bucks were as eager as possible for the does ; 

 but the latter proving indifferent, I was unable to testify to their union 

 having taken place ; so I left them in pairs, in the same hutch, 

 for periods of three days at a time. Attempts were made in this 

 way, to breed from them in seven instances ; and five of them were 

 utter failures. One case was quite successful ; and that, fortunately, 

 was of the same pair (A (u) and M (u, w)) which, under the u opera- 

 tion, had bred the white-footed young one. This time, the offspring 

 (six in number) were pure silver-greys. The last case was unfortu- 

 nate. The doe (E (m)) had been once sterile to its partner (N w, w)), 

 and she had been put again in the same hutch with him for a short 

 period, but was thought not to have taken him. She was shortly 

 afterwards submitted to the operation x. From this she had nearly 

 recovered when she brought forth an aborted htter and died. I was 

 absent from town at the time ; but Mr. Fraser, who examined them, 

 wrote to say he fully believed that some were pied ; if so, it must 

 have been under the influence of the cross-circulation. But I have 

 little faith in the appearance of the skin of naked, immature rabbits ; 

 for I have noticed that difference of transparency, and the colour of 

 underlying tissues, give fallacious indications. 



My results thus far came to this, viz, that by injecting defibrinized 

 blood I had produced no other effect than temporary sterihty. If 

 the sterility were due to this cause alone, my results admitted of being 

 interpreted in a sense favourable to Pangenesis, because I had de- 

 prived the rabbits of a large part of that very component of the 

 blood on which the restoration of tissues depends, and therefore of 

 that part in which, according to Pangenesis, the reproductive ele- 

 ments might be expected to reside. I had injected ahen corpuscles 

 but not aUen gemmules. The possible success of the white foot, in 

 my first litters, was not contradicted by the absence of any thing of 

 the sort in my second set, because the additional blood I had thrown 

 in was completely defibrinized. It was essential to the solution of 

 the problem, that blood in its natural state should be injected; 

 and I thought the most convenient way of doing so was by esta- 

 blishing cross-circulation between the carotids. If the results were^ 

 affirmative to the truth of Pangenesis, then my first experiments would' 

 not be thrown away ; for (supposing them to be confirmed by larger 

 experience) they would prove that the reproductive elements lay 

 in the fibrine. But if cross-circulation gave a negative reply, it would 

 be clear that the white foot was an accident of no importance to the 

 theory of Pangenesis, and that the sterility need not be ascribed to 

 the loss of hereditary gemmules, but to abnormal health, due to 

 defibrinization and perhaps to other causes also. 



Ann. & Marj. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. vii. 27 



