1871.] Mr. F. Galton's Experiments in Pangenesis. 395 



would account for the very minute effects of use or disuse of parts, and of 

 acquired mental habits being transmitted hereditarily. 



It occurred to me, when considering these theories, that the truth of 

 Pangenesis admitted of a direct and certain test. I knew that the opera- 

 tion of transfusion of blood had been frequently practised with success on 

 men as well as animals, and that it was not a cruel operation — that not only 

 had it been used in midwifery practice, but that large quantities of saline 

 water had been injected into the veins of patients suffering under cholera. 

 I therefore determined to inject alien blood into the circulation of pure 

 varieties of animals (of course, under the influence of anae sthe tics), and to 

 breed from them, and to note whether their offspring did or did not show 

 signs of mongrelism. If Pangenesis were true, according to the inter- 

 pretation which I have put upon it, the results would be startling in their 

 novelty, and of no small practical use ; for it would become possible to 

 modify varieties of animals, by introducing slight dashes of new blood, in 

 ways important to breeders. Thus, supposing a small infusion of bull-dog 

 blood was wanted in a breed of greyhounds, this, or any more complicated 

 admixture, might be effected (possibly by operating through the umbilical 

 cord of a newly born animal) in a single generation. 



I have now made experiments of transfusion and cross circulation on 

 a large scale in rabbits, and have arrived at definite results, negativing, in 

 my opinion, beyond all doubt, the truth of the doctrine of Pangenesis. 



The course of my experiments was as follows : — Towards the end of 

 1869, I wrote to Dr. Sclater, the Secretary of the Zoological Society, ex- 

 plaining what I proposed to do, and asking if I might be allowed to 

 keep my rabbits in some unused part of the Gardens, because I had no ac- 

 commodation for them in my own house, and I was also anxious to obtain 

 the skilled advice of Mr. Bartlett, the Superintendent of the Gardens, as 

 to their breed and the value of my results. I further asked to be permitted 

 to avail myself of the services of their then Prosector, Dr. Murie, to make 

 the operations, whose skill and long experience in minute dissection is well 

 known. I have warmly to thank Dr. Sclater for the large assistance he has 

 rendered to me, in granting all I asked, to the full, and more than to the full ; 

 and I have especially to express my obligations to the laborious and kind aid 

 given to me by Dr. Murie, at real inconvenience to himself, for he had little 

 leisure to spare. The whole of the operations of transfusion into the jugular 

 vein were performed by him, with the help of Mr. Oscar Fraser, then Assist- 

 ant Prosector, and now appointed Osteologist to the Museum at Calcutta, I 

 doing no more than preparing the blood derived from the supply-animal, 

 performing the actual injection, and taking notes. The final series of opera- 

 tions, consisting of cross-circulation between the carotid arteries of two 

 varieties of rabbits, took place after Dr. Murie had ceased to be Prosector. 

 They were performed by Mr. Oscar Fraser in a most skilful manner, though 

 he and I were still further indebted, on more than one occasion, to Dr. 

 Murie's advice and assistance. My part in this series was limited to in- 



