EDMUND MONTGOMERY-ORGANIC REPRODUCTION. 
3 
Of course, if the complex organism is really composed of a vast aggre¬ 
gate of disparate autonomous beings, then, of necessity, in order that 
each of these may be reproduced from one and the same germ-cell, they 
must all separately manage to send into this germ-cell specific represent¬ 
atives of themselves. Darwin’s gemmules are assumed in order that this 
representative feat may be performed by them. 
Here it will be well to point out at once the shortcomings of this initial 
assumption of Pangenesis. A gemmule is conceived as reproducing by 
fissiparous division only its own kind. Consequently, under this assump¬ 
tion, there exists really no such entity as a “ cell.” A cell can be, then, 
only a cluster of equal gemmules, and not a molecularly highly organized 
being, as long ago maintained by Bruecke, now by most biologists; and, in 
fact, as revealed by direct observation. It is, therefore, not correct to 
imagine with Darwin that such unorganized formations as he conceived 
cells to be can throw off reproductive gemmules in the same way as a 
complex organism throws off reproductive germs. Nor can it be rightly 
said that the hypothetical gemmules reproduce the cell in the same way 
actual germs reproduce the adult organism. With the assumption of 
gemmules we get in verity no farther than a heaping up of their own 
kind, and not the reproduction of a more highly organized being than 
themselves. 
But the principal flaw, the evident petitio principii involved in this 
leading assumption of Pangenesis, is that the entire problem of reproduc¬ 
tion is shifted unsolved into the region of invisibility; for it is clear 
that the individual gemmules being imagined as containing everything 
that imparts specific characteristics to particular cells must inconsequence 
conceal within themselves the entire riddle of reproduction they were in¬ 
vented to explain. They are the only reproductive agents of Pangenesis, 
and they reproduce only themselves. The way their own reproduction 
is effected is left completely in the dark. Consequently, reproduction in 
general remains altogether unexplained. 
Thus, inadvertently, has the egg of the canker-worm been deposited 
in the very heart of the bud of this hypothesis of reproduction. It is, 
therefore, easy to foresee that the entire hypothesis must come to grief 
during its process of unfolding. And, indeed, it is pathetic to witness 
the desperate straits Pangenesis is put to in order to gather within the 
reproductive cell a complete assortment of gemmules of every diversified 
cell of the organized body. Gemmules of every kind are believed to be 
thrown off into the general circulation. Myriads of them must be thus 
coursing along in promiscuous confusion. What known agent can be in¬ 
voked to pick out from the jumbled multitude, and cluster together in 
proper order, the exact set of gemmules fit to reproduce with all but un¬ 
failing fidelity the adult organism. In man this miraculous feat would 
