Chap. XXVII. 



OP PANGENESIS. 



401 







sanlylead to complete reversion of character ; and it is, perhaps 

 not too bold a supposition that unmodified and undeteriorated 

 gemmules of the same nature would be especially apt to com- 

 bine. Pure gemmules in combination with hybridised gemmules 

 would lead to partial reversion. And lastly, hybridised gem- 

 mules derived from both parent-hybrids would simply reproduce 

 the original hybrid form. 5 * All these cases and degrees of 

 reversion incessantly occur. 



It was shown in the fifteenth chapter that certain characters 

 are antagonistic to each other or do not readily blend together; 

 hence, when two animals with antagonistic characters are crossed 

 it might well happen that a sufficiency of gemmules in the male 

 alone for the reproduction of his peculiar characters, and in the 

 lemale alone for the reproduction of her peculiar characters, 

 would not be present ; and in this case dormant gemmules derived 

 from some remote progenitor might easily gain the ascendency 

 and cause the reappearance of long-lost characters. For instance, 

 when black and white pigeons, or black and white fowls are 

 crossed,-colours which do not readily blend,-blue plumage in 

 the one case, evidently derived from the rock-pigeon, and red 

 plumage m the other case, derived from the wild jungle-cock 

 occasionally reappear. With uncrossed breeds the same result 

 would follow, under conditions which favoured the multiplica- 

 tion and development of certain dormant gemmules, as when 

 animals become feral and revert to their pristine character. A 

 certain number of gemmules being requisite for the development 

 of each character, as is known to be the case from several sper- 

 matozoa or pollen-grains being necessary for fertilisation, and 

 time favouring their multiplication, will together account for the 

 cuiious cases, insisted on by Mr. Sedgwick, of certain diseases 



S/ PPeanLg i m altemate g«ions. This likewise 

 hold good, more or less strictly, with other weakly inherited mo 



appear actually to gam strength by the intermission of a genera- 

 tion. The transmission of dormant gemmules during many 

 successive generations is hardlv m itZu • \ 8 n } 



iidiQiy m "self more improbable, as 





54 In these remarks I, in fact, follow 

 Naudin, who speaks of the elements or 

 essences of the two species which are 



VOL. II. 



crossed. See his excellent memoir in 

 the'Nouvelles Archives du Museum,' 

 torn. i. p. 151. 



2 D 



