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Hypothesis of Pangenesis
GERALD L. GEISON
This work was carried out with the support of a Traineeship from the U. S. Public Health Service and
a Graduate Fellowship from the National Science Foundation. I am deeply indebted to Dr. Leonard G.
Wilson for numerous suggestions and constant encouragement and to Dr. H. Lewis McKinney for
permission to use the results of his discovery and study of Darwin's annotated copy of Spencer's
Principles of biology (see n. 114 below).
1. Francis Darwin, ed., The life and letters of Charles Darwin (New York, 1899), 2 vols.,n, 227-228.
Hereafter cited as Life and letters. The original letter does not indicate in what year it was sent. Francis
Darwin added in brackets the date [1865?], and this choice is confirmed by Huxley's dated reply (n. 3
below).
2. Ibid., n, 228.
[375]
376 Journal of the History of Medicine : October 1969
suggested only that Darwin publish his views, 'not so much in the shape of
formed conclusions, as of hypothetical developments of the only clue at
present accessible. . . .' 3
It was in this spirit that Darwin did eventually publish. 'The Provisional
Hypothesis of Pangenesis' became chapter xxvii in The Variation ofAnimals
and Plants under Domestication, the first edition of which is dated 1868.4
Darwin opens that chapter with these words:
In the previous chapters large classes of facts, such as those bearing on bud-
7. Ibid., n, 357.
8. Ibid., n, 396-397.
9. Ibid., n, 386.
10. Ibid., 11, 397-402. Cf. Sir Gavin de Beer, Charles Darwin: evolution by natural selection (Garden
City, N.Y., 1964), p. 204.
378 Journal of the History of Medicine : October 1969
in the offspring, of their 'uniting with wrong cells... during their nascent
state.'11 Mutilations are rarely inherited because there is built up, in the
course of time, an excess or reserve of gemmules sufficient to reproduce
even a part which has been repeatedly amputated. Those mutilations which
are inherited arise generally, perhaps exclusively, in connection with dis-
ease. Perhaps this is because the gemmules of the lost part are attracted to the
diseased surface and are destroyed there to such an extent that there are not
enough gemmules left for the structure to be developed in the offspring.12
Also explained by gemmule action are regeneration and the repair of
Thirty years ago, Darwin's biographer Geoffrey West suggested that Pan-
genesis was 'conceived as early as 1840 or 1841, [and was] long treasured
21. Geoffrey West, Charles Darwin, a portrait (New Haven, 1938), p. 272.
22. Life and letters, n, 255.
23. Ibid., n, 262-263.
24. Fleeming Jenkin, "The origin of species,' N. Brit. Rev., 1867,4 6,277-318- The review is unsigned
but was later attributed to Jenkin. See W. E. Houghton, ed., The Wellesley index to Victorian periodicals
(Toronto, 1966), p. 691, item 842. Cf. Fleeming Jenkin, Papers literary, scientific, etc.ed. Sidney Colvin
and J. A. Ewing, with a memoir by Robert Louis Stevenson (London, 1887), 2 vols., 1, 215-263.
Geison : Darwin and Pangenesis 381
Darwin's new hereditary mechanism. Loren Eiseley, for example, charged
in 1959 that Darwin's elaboration of Pangenesis was 'an indirect escape
from such problems a s . . . Jenkin had formulated.'25
In 1963 both Peter Vorzimmer26 and R. C. Olby 27 argued against this
point of view, pointing out that Darwin had already sent the manuscript of
Pangenesis to Huxley in 1865, two years before Jenkin's review appeared.
Vorzimmer also pointed out that by the timeJenkin's review was published,
Darwin had already sent the Variation to the printers.28 Thus, if anything
that appears in the first edition of the Variation bears Jenkin's influence, it
Brit. Ass., 1861 [imprint 1862], trans, of the sections, pp. 27-28, quote on p. 28. This was only an
abstract of Thomson's paper, but the full text appears in Thomson, 'On the age of the sun's heat,'
Macmillan's Mag., 1862, 5, 388-393, quote on p. 393. Cf. Thomson (n. 35), i, 421. The reference in
note 39 below is to this unabstracted version of Thomson's paper.
37. William Thomson, 'On the secular cooling of the earth,' read 28 April 1862, Trans, roy. Soc.
Edinb., 1864, 23, 157-169; cf. Phil. Mag., 1863, 25, 1-14. This argument was later repeated, in arro-
gantly short form, in Thomson, "The "doctrine of uniformity" in geology briefly refuted,' read 18
December 1865, Proc. roy. Soc. Edinb., 1866, 5, 512-513.
38. See Thomson (n. 37), p. 159.
39. See Thomson (n. 36), pp. 391-392.
40. William Thomson, 'On geological time,' read 27 February 1868, Trans, geol. Soc. Clasg., 1871,
5, 1-28.
41. See, e.g., Archibald Geikie, 'Address to the geological section,' Rep. Brit. Ass., 1899 [imprint
1900], pp. 718-730, on p. 722.
42. For a partisan review of the controversy as it stood in July 1869, see [P. G. Tait), 'Geological
384 Journal of the History of Medicine : October ig6g
Huxley to a detailed reply,43 which in turn inspired a rejoinder from Kelvin.
It was in this rejoinder that Kelvin first converted his objection to uniformi-
tarian geology into an explicit objection against evolution by natural selec-
tion. 'The limitations of geological periods, imposed by physical science,'
he wrote, 'cannot, of course, disprove the hypothesis of transmutation of
species; but it does seem sufficient to disprove that transmutation has taken
place through "descent with modification by natural selection." >44
From 1868 on, Darwin's letters reveal his increasing disquietude at Kel-
vin's objections,45 and even as early as 1869 he was so impressed by them
time,' N. Brit. Rev., 1869, 50, 406-439. The review is unsigned but is attributed to Tait in Houghton
(n. 24), p. 693, item 910. Among the participants in the dispute was Joseph Hooker, who defended the
uniformitarian view in his presidential address to the British Association in 1868 (August). See Rep.
Brit. Ass., 1868 [imprint 1869], pp. lviii-lxxv, on lxx-lxxii. Hooker does not respond directly to
Kelvin's famous address of the previous February but rather to Kelvin's position as it is presented by
Jenkin in his 1867 review of the Origin. Because we now emphasize Jenkin's 'swamping effect' argu-
ment against natural selection, it is interesting that Hooker refers instead to the 'age of the earth'
argument as 'the most formidable . . . urged by the reviewer,' (lxxii) though he dismisses it with
apparent confidence.
43. T. H. Huxley, "The anniversary address of the president,' Quart.], geol. Soc. Lond., 1869, 25,
xxviii-liii, on xxxviii-liii.
44. William Thomson, 'Of geological dynamics,' read 5 April 1869, Trans, geol. Soc. Clasg., 1871,
3, 215-240, quotation on p. 222.
45. See Life and Letters, n, 296, 326; Francis Darwin and A. C. Seward, eds., More letters of Charles
Darwin (London, 19035,2 vols., 1,313-314,11,6-7,163-164,211-212. [Hereafter cited as More letters.]
Cf. Eiseley (n. 18), pp. 235, 237, 240, 242.
46. See More letters, 1, 314; Morse Peckham, ed., The Origin of species by Charles Darwin: a variorum
text (Philadelphia, 1959), pp. 486, 513. In the sixth and last edition, Darwin referred to Kelvin's
objection as 'probably one of the gravest as yet advanced.' Ibid., p. 728.
47. Olby (n. 18), p. 100.
Geison : Darwin and Pangenesis 385
48
ofreproduction,' and proceeded inductively to Pangenesis. He documents
this assertion in chapter four of his work, suggesting that Darwin needed to
deny the basic distinction between sexual and asexual processes in order to
explain 'how acquired characters can be inherited [from the somatic cells]
by the sex cells and therefore how changes in the conditions of life can give
rise to heritable variation in sexually reproducing organisms.'49
Olby's argument, though suggestive and persuasive as far as it goes,
concentrates too exclusively on one aspect of the story. He does not develop
in detail the steps by which Darwin came to his hypothesis, nor does he
77. It is because the 'cellular theory is not fully established' that Darwin hesitates to call bis gem-
mules 'cell-gemmules.' See ibid., n, 374.
78. What dispute there was centered mainly about the question of the origin of cells. Some disputed
the specific name cell, but as Darwin put it, 'every one appears to admit that the body consists of a
multitude of "organic units," each of which possesses its own proper attributes, and is to a certain
extent independent of all others.' See ibid., n, 370-371.
79. Olby (n. 27), p. 252, says that 'Darwin made no reference to the cell theory' in the manuscript
of 1865; nonetheless Darwin used the word cell fourteen times in that manuscript. In the expanded
version of Pangenesis which appears in the Variation, Darwin specifically discusses the cell theory,
referring on several occasions to Claude Bernard's Lecons sur Us proprUUs its tissus vivants (Paris, 1866)
and to the English translation of Rudolf Virchow's Cellular pathology (see n. 83 below).
392 Journal of the History of Medicine : October 1969
functional independence of the bodily parts.80 To Darwin, it seemed but
'one small step' from the realization of this functional independence to the
assumption 'that each cell casts off a free gemmule, which is capable of re-
producing a similar cell.'81
One particular version of the cell theory seems especially important for
Pangenesis—namely that version which asserted the doctrine oiomnis cellula
e cellula. The idea that all cells are derived by division from previously
existing cells is perfectly consistent with, and may even have suggested,
Darwin's assumption that the gemmules thrown off by previously existing
80. See Variation, n, 368-371. Darwin here particularly enlists the support of Bernard and Virchow
for his elaboration of the functional independence of the bodily parts.
81. Ibid., 11, 377.
82. In the letter which accompanied the manuscript of Pangenesis, Darwin said he would not
ordinarily ask such a 'very great favour' from one so 'hard worked' as Huxley: 'You must refuse if
you are too much overworked.' Life and letters, n, 227-228.
83. Rudolf Virchow, Cellular pathology as based upon physiological and pathological histology; twenty
lectures delivered in . . . 1858, translated from the 2nd edition of the original by Frank Chance, with
notes and numerous emendations (London, i860).
84. See Variation, n, 370.
Geison : Darwin and Pangenesis 393
based on "pre-existence"—or'omnis cellula," &c,'85 and this point of view
was corroborated by a reviewer who suggested that Pangenesis 'starts from
the notion that every organized body is composed of cells . . . capable of
reproducing their own sorts... .' 86
85. Richard Owen, OH the anatomy of vertebrates (London, 1866-68), 3 vols., m, 813.
86. 'Variations of animals and plants under domestication,' Student Intellectual Observer, 1868, 3rd
set. 1, 179-188, on 187.
87. Or, more properly, the Hippocratic corpus. A pangenesis-like hypothesis appears in Perigones
(about 400 B.C.).
88. Variation, n, 374-375.
89. See Charles Darwin, The variation of animals and plants under domestication, authorized ed. [from
Darwin's 2nd ed.] (New York, 1899), 2 vols., n, 359, n. 42.
394 Journal of the History of Medicine : October ig6g
Zirkle has found more than ninety 'precursors' whose ideas, in one way or
another, bear some resemblance to Pangenesis.90 Indeed Pangenesis, at its
simplest level, had always been the natural and traditional way to account
for blending inheritance and for the inheritance of acquired characters.
But did any of the precursors actually influence Darwin's ideas? The
answer is greatly simplified by the fact that Darwin seems to have had little
historical sense.91 He was certainly not much inclined to read the pre-
nineteenth century literature,92 and there is little chance that he was influ-
enced by pangenetic theories proposed before 1800.
Contemporary precursors
Darwin was not the only nineteenth century writer to speculate on the
phenomena of heredity and reproduction. It may be that elements of his
hypothesis can be found in a number of contemporary works, but so far
only five nineteenth century men have been specifically credited with
espousing pangenetic hypotheses prior to Darwin.
Two of these men—Lorenz Oken and Paolo Mantegazza—did not at all
influence Darwin's developing conceptions. The evidence for Oken's com-
mitment to a pangenetic hypothesis is a brief and unimpressive passage in
his Allegemeine Naturgeschichte (1839-1841; English edition, 1847). This
passage, quoted by Zirkle,97 is so tenuously connected with Darwin's highly
developed formulation of the hypothesis that Oken can be easily rejected as
a source of possible influence. Mantegazza's claim is based upon Darwin's
own unelaborated statement that Mantegazza in his Elementi di igiene 'clearly
foresaw' the hypothesis of Pangenesis.98 That is debatable, but unimportant,
since it is in any case highly unlikely that Darwin knew of this Italian work
until after he had seen Mantegazza's 1868 review of the Variation." There is
no evidence that Darwin ever read the appropriate passage in Oken's work,
and there is every reason to believe that he did not see Mantegazza's original
96. See Variation, n, 375, n. 29. Cf. Life and letters, n, 229. For a summary of the ideas of Buffon and
Bonnet, see Erik Nordenskiold, The history of biology, trans, from the Swedish by L. B. Byre (New
York, 1928), pp. 224-226, 244-246.
97. Zirkle (n. 20), p. 144.
98. See Darwin (n. 89), n, 359, n. 42.
99. Mantegazza's review appeared (in Italian) in Nuova Antologia, 1868, 8, 70-98. See esp. p. 97,
where Mantegazza claims a similarity between Darwin's ideas on Pangenesis and his own earlier
ideas, and where he documents this claim by citing the third edition of his Elementi di igiene exactly as
Darwin cites it in his Variation footnote. I suspect Darwin was attracted to read this review of his own
book, but had never read Mantegazza's earlier Elementi.
396 Journal of the History of Medicine : October 1969
statement before 1868, if ever. Even had he read both before drafting his
own 1865 manuscript, they would have given him little help.
However, three nineteenth century scientists—Owen, Spencer, and Nau-
din—probably did influence Darwin, each in different ways and to differing
degrees.
Richard Owen
In his book On Parthenogenesis, published in 1849, Richard Owen stated
100. Richard Owen, On parthenogenesis, or the successive production of procreating individuals from a
single ovum; a discourse introductory to the Hunterian lectures on generation and developmentfor the year 1849,
delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons of England (London, 1849).
101. More letters, 1, 102-103.
102. See T. H. Huxley, 'On the agamic reproduction and morphology of Aphis,' Trans. Linn. Soc.
Lond., 1863, 22, 193-220, 221-236. Cf. Nora Barlow, ed., Darwin and Henslow, the growth of an idea,
letters 1831-1860 (London, 1967), p. 209, n. 2.
Geison : Darwin and Pangenesis 397
. . . so included [wrote Owen], any derivative germ cell, or the nucleus of such,
may commence and repeat the same processes of growth by imbibition, and of
propagation by spontaneousfission,as those to which itself owed its origin.103
Owen used these residual germ cells not only to explain his belief that
several generations of Aphis larvae could be produced from a single impreg-
nated ovum 104 but also to account for parthenogenesis in general and for
regeneration and the repairs of injuries105—phenomena which Darwin was
later to explain on the basis of residual gemmules.106 Furthermore, as Dar-
win admitted in 1868, Owen's view agreed with his 'in the assumed trans-
Herbert Spencer
Far more pangenetic in spirit than Owen's ideas were those which Her-
bert Spencer laid down in his Principles of Biology, sent periodically to
subscribers, and then published in two volumes in 1864 and 1867 respec-
112. Herbert Spencer, Principles of biology (London, 1864-67), 2 vols. Hereafter cited as Principles.
113. Ibid., 1,177-183,25 3-256. It is from Spencer's preface that we know the date that each number
was issued to the subscribers. No. 9 (pp. 161-240) was issued in July 1863; No. 10 (pp. 241-320) in
January 1864. See ibid., 1, v.
114. Although no copy of the Principles of biology is listed in the catalogue of the Darwin library at
the Botany School, Cambridge (n. 92), Dr. H. Lewis McKinney has discovered in that same library
an annotated copy of the book; the separate subscriber's issues, together with their covers, are bound
up into one thick volume. Dr. McKinney has very generously allowed me to use his extensive notes
on Darwin's marginalia and annotations and has helped me secure from the Botany School at Cam-
bridge a microfilm copy of the most important of these, so that I might see them with my own eyes.
Without Dr. McKinney's discovery and assistance, the discussion on Spencer would have been im-
possible.
115. On 30 June 1866 Darwin wrote to Hooker [More letters, n, 235): 'I have almost finished the
last number of H. Spencer, and am astonished at its prodigality of original thought. B u t . . . It is also
very unsatisfactory, the impossibility of conjecturing where direct action of external circumstances
begins and ends—as he candidly owns in discussing the production of woody tissues in the trunks of
trees on the one hand, and on the other in spines and the shells of nuts.' The discussion to which
Darwin refers appears on pp. 255-274 of Vol. n of Spencer's Principles, pages which were included in
the issue (No. 16) for June of 1866. So the letter to Hooker gives definite proof that Darwin read at
least one number of Spencer's Principles within a month after issue.
Geison : Darwin and Pangenesis 399
tions. Spencer introduces his physiological units in a chapter on waste and
repair. He suggests that there are units in the circulating blood 'exactly like
in kind to those of which each organ consists,'116 and he makes these units
responsible for repair and regeneration by virtue of a 'faculty of organic
polarity.' This faculty, similar in many ways to Darwin's concept of'affin-
ity,' was the abbreviated expression Spencer used for his assumption that
groups of compound units have the power to assimilate appropriate am-
bient materials and mould them into units of their own form. These organic
polarities are dependent upon the structure of the physiological units; and
Charles Naudin
In i860 the French Academie des Sciences announced that the prix des
sciences physiques for 1862 would be awarded to the best essay submitted on
the topic of hybridization in the vegetable kingdom. Two essays were sub-
mitted, and the prize was given to Charles Naudin (1815-99), w n o had
begun his studies of plant hybridization in the 1840s with taxonomic prob-
lems in mind but had moved on in the next decade to consider their evolu-
tionary significance.139 He was especially impressed by the tendency of
hybrid offspring to revert to the characters of one or the other of the pure
137. Ibid., 1, 291. 138. See Variations, n, 375, n. 29. 139. See Olby (n. 18), p. 62.
Geison : Darwin and Pangenesis 405
parental species, a tendency which in 1858, if not before, he elevated to the
rank of a law, the 'law of return.' 140
Naudin's commitment to this law led him to the position that hybrids
were 'useless machineries' (rouages inutiles) which, unlike species, had no
place in the plan of Nature;141 and, as R. C. Olby points out, Naudin had
suggested as early as 1856 that reversion was accomplished in hybrid off-
spring via the segregation of the specific 'essences' which had been be-
queathed to the hybrid:
Does one not say that Nature is eager to dissolve hybrid forms which do not enter
153. De Beer (n. 10), p. 208. Cf. R. A. Fisher, Tlte genetical theory of natural selection (New York,
1958), pp. 1-2. Fisher remarks of this passage that it indicates that Darwin once felt 'the need for an
alternative to blending inheritance . . . , though probably he never worked out a distinct idea of a
particulate theory. . . . The idea apparently was never developed . . . . " I would disagree: though
Darwin never did work out a general particulate theory, he also never lost sight (at least certainly not
after Naudin's paper of 1863) of the need for non-fusing, non-contaminating factors whenever he
considered the remarkable phenomenon of reversion. The 'Mendelian' character of Darwin's explanation
for reversion was emphasized forty years ago by H. F. Roberts in his important discussion of Darwin's
work on plant hybridization. Indeed Roberts argues that Darwin's explanation for reversion 'was a
natural corollary to his doctrine of pangenesis.' See H. F. Roberts, Plant hybridization before Mendel
(Princeton, 1929), pp. 221-240, esp. 238-240, quote on p. 240.
154. Variation, 11, 400-401.
155. See Olby (n. 18), p. 66.
156. More letters, n, 339-340.
408 Journal of the History of Medicine : October ig6g
complete return.157 But Naudin believed that in the great majority of cases,
there was at least some indication of return to parental type in the second
generation; indeed, he believed that some hybrids would return completely
as quickly as that. Even in his most extravagant example—the cross between
Nicotiana persica and Langsdorjjii—Naudin was thinking in terms often or
so generations,'158 while Darwin was thinking in terms of hundreds or
thousands of generations. According to Naudin's hypothesis, a dynamic
tension was created by the continuous struggle for dominance between the
pure elements of each parent and by the special affinity of each distinct
Conclusion
Aside from the particular question of Naudin's influence, Olby has made
an impressive case for the view that Darwin's assumption of a basic identity
between sexual and asexual processes was crucial to his formulation of
Pangenesis. There can be no dispute on this point. It is amply confirmed by
reading either the 1865 or the 1868 version of Pangenesis, and Olby's analysis
ofthe 1865 manuscript demonstrates it with striking clarity. Olby may even
be correct in arguing that this assumption was the starting point for Pan-
genesis.165 Darwin's presentation of the hypothesis—especially in 1865, but
also in 1868—certainly seems to corroborate this view.
Nonetheless, Olby offers no explanation as to why Darwin was unable
to provide an hereditary hypothesis until 1865, even though he had long
before presented evidence for his belief that the various modes of reproduc-
tion pass into each other by insensible degrees.166 That Olby omits this