176 
EEVIEWS. 
AKTIFICIAL SELECTION AND PANGENESIS.* 
T he narrow limits of our space make us dread so serious an undertaking 
as tke review of tke two wonderfully comprekensive volumes which 
Mr. Darwin has just laid before English naturalists. The vast accumulation 
of facts displayed, the complex and intricate thread of induction pursued, and 
the numerous aspects in which the whole subject is exposed by the author of 
the Origin of Species,” cause us to approach even an outlinear sketch of the 
work before us with no little diffidence. Our readers, therefore, will under- 
stand that it is from no want of appreciation of the importance of the problem 
that we refrain from a more lengthy discussion of Mr. Darwin’s masterpiece 
of scientific essayism. Indeed, so difficult do we consider the effort to give a 
lucid exposition of the latest argument which Mr. Darwin advances, that we 
regret, for the sake of the theory, that the author was not induced to pub- 
lish a popular epitome of the facts of his case, and did not address the 
treatise now before us to the scientific public exclusively. Eor, after all, it 
must be confessed that even enthusiastic general readers may quail before 
nearly 1,000 pages of scientific matter, most of which are in small type, and 
all of which are, so to speak, crammed with condensed fact.” Neverthe- 
less, we shall try, as clearly as possible, to lay before our readers an elemen- 
tary notion of what Mr. Darwin tries to prove in the work under notice. 
Those who have paid any attention to the question are aware that Mr. 
Darwin has hitherto confined his argument to the evidences drawn from 
animals and plants in a natural condition of existence. In the present 
instance, he brings under notice all the facts he has been able to collect con- 
cerning the domestication of animals and plants, and the formation of new 
breeds by artificial selection. In addition to this branch of the problem, in 
his second volume he deals with the subsidiary questions of the laws which 
govern variations and inheritance ; and finally he proposes and supports a 
new hypothesis which has as much intrinsic interest as that of Natural 
Selection, and which he has termed Pangenesis. The theory and its testimony 
we may now consider seriatim. We must, however, premise that as Mr. 
Darwin examines the history and anatomy of every breed of domesticated 
organism, and gives, as it were, a complete monograph on each, we shall 
limit our remarks to one or two of the following animals : dogs, cats, horses, 
asses, pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, rabbits, pigeons, fowls, ducks, geese, peacocks. 
* ^^The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication.” By 
Charles Darwin, M.A., r.R.S. 2 vols. London : John Murray. 1868. 
