o/O PROVISIONAL HYPOTHESIS Chap. XXVII 



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 like- 

 wise capable of transmission in a dormant state to future 

 generations and may then be developed. Their development 

 depends on their union with other partially developed or 

 nascent cells which precede them in the regular course of 

 growth. Why I use the term union, will be seen when we 

 discuss the direct action of pollen on the tissues of the mother- 

 plant. G emmules are supposed 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 reproduc- 

 tive organs or buds which generate new organisms, but the 

 units of which each individual is composed. These assump- 

 tions constitute the provisional hypothesis which I have called 

 Pangenesis. Views in many respects similar have been pro- 

 pounded by various authors. 42 



42 Mr. G. H. Lewes (• Fortnightly tially different, Buiinet ( ; (Euvres 

 Renew,' Nor. 1, 1 868. p. 506) remark's d'Hist. Nat./ torn, v., part i., 1781, 

 on the number of writers who have 4to edit., p. 334) speaks of the limbs 

 advanced nearly similar views. More having germs adapted for the repara- 

 tion two thousand years ago Aristotle tion of all possible losses; but 

 combated a view of this kind, which, whether these germs are supposed to 

 as I hear from Dr. W. Ogle, was be the same with tho^e within buds 

 held by Hippocrates and others. Ray, and the sexual organ? is not clear. 

 in his ' Wisdom of God ' (2nd-edit., Prof. Owen says (' Anatomy of Verte- 

 1692, p. Si), says that "every part brates,' vol. iii., 1868, p." 813) that 

 '• of the body seems to club and con- he fails to see any fundamental differ- 

 '• tribute to the seed." The "organic ence between the views which he pro- 

 molecules" of Buff'on ("Hist. Nat. pounded in his 'Parthenogenesis' 

 Gen.,' edit, of 1749, torn. ii. pp. 54-. 62, (1849, pp. 5-8), and which he now con- 

 329, 333, 420, 425) appear at first si ders as erroneous, and my hypothesis 

 sight to be the same as the gemmules of pangenesis : but a reviewer (' Jour- 

 •f my hypothesis, but they are essen- nal of Anat. and Phys.,' May, 1869, 



