From Francis Galton 25 April 1871
42 Rutland Gate
April 25 71
My dear Darwin
I am grieved beyond measure, to learn that I have misrepresented your doctrine,— and the only consolation I can feel is that your letter to ‘Nature’ may place the doctrine in a clearer light and attract more attention to it.1 I write hurriedly, as time is important, to save the mornings post, in order to point out two passages which, I hope, in your letter to Nature, you will explain at length, so as to remove the false impression of Pangenesis under which I & probably others labour. In “Domestication Animals &c” p 374 “… throw of minute granules or atoms, which circulate freely throughout the system …”2 & p. 379 “… the gemmules .... . must be thoroughly diffused; nor does this seem improbable considering … the steady circulation of fluids throughout the body.”3
(Is there not also, a passage in which the words “circulating fluid” are used?— I cannot hurriedly lay my hand on it, but believe it to exist)4
Believe me—necessary in great haste—very | sincerely yours | Francis Galton
Footnotes
Bibliography
Galton, Francis. 1871. Experiments in pangenesis, by breeding from rabbits of a pure variety, into whose circulation blood taken from other varieties had previously been largely transfused. [Read 30 March 1871.] Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 19 (1870–1): 393–410.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Upset to learn he has misrepresented CD’s doctrine on Pangenesis [in Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 19 (1871): 393–410]. Hopes that CD’s letter to Nature [3 (1871): 502–3; Collected papers 2: 165–7] will clarify the doctrine and attract attention to it.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7717
- From
- Francis Galton
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- London, Rutland Gate, 42
- Source of text
- DAR 105: 28–29
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7717,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7717.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19