Inheritance of Acguived 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 
