Inheritance of Acquired Characters 235 



one or both parents ? Even an imperfect answer to this 

 question would be satisfactory." 



Coming now to the theory, we find that it consists of one 

 chief assumption and several minor ones. " It is universally 

 admitted that the cells or units of the body increase by self- 

 division or proliferation, retaining the same nature, and that 

 they ultimately become converted into the various tissues and 

 substances of the body. But besides this means of increase 

 I assume that the units throw off minute granules which are 

 dispersed throughout the whole system ; that these, when 

 supplied with proper nutriment, multiply by self-division, and 

 are ultimately developed into units like those from which 

 they were originally derived. These granules may be called 

 gemmules. They are collected from all parts of the system 

 to constitute the sexual elements, and their development in 

 the next generation forms a new being ; but they are likewise 

 capable of transmission in a dormant state to future genera- 

 tions, and may then be developed. . . . Gemmules are sup- 

 posed to be thrown off by every unit, not only during the 

 adult state, but during each stage of development of every 

 organism ; but not necessarily during the continued existence 

 of the same unit. Lastly, I assume that the gemmules in 

 their dormant state have a mutual affinity for each other, 

 leading to their aggregation into buds, or into the sexual 

 elements. Hence, it is not the reproductive organs, or buds, 

 which generate new organisms, but the units of which each 

 individual is composed. These assumptions constitute the 

 provisional hypothesis which I have called Pangenesis." 



It will be noticed that the first assumption is that the cells 

 throw off minute gemmules or granules. The second assump- 

 tion is that these are collected in the reproductive organs, or 

 in buds, or in regenerating parts; the third assumption is 

 that the gemmules may lie dormant through several genera- 

 tions ; the fourth, that the development of the reproductive 

 cells is not so much the development of the cell itself, but of 



