To Francis Galton 4 November [1875]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Nov. 4th
My dear Galton
I have just returned from London where I was forced to go yesterday for Vivisection Commission.—2
I have read your interesting note & am delighted that you stick up for germs. I can hardly form any opinion until I read your paper in extenso.3 I have modified parts of the Chapt. on Pangenesis which is now printing & have allowed that the gemmules may, or probably do, multiply in the reproductive organs.4 I write now as I fancy that you have not read B. Sèquards last paper, in which he gives 17 or 13 (I forget which) instances of deficient toes on the same foot, in the offspring of parents, which had gnawed off their own gangrenous toes owing to the sciatic nerve having been divided.—5
You speak “almost of the necessity of double parentage in all complex organisations;” I suppose you have thought well on the many cases of parthenogenesis in Lepidoptera & Hymenoptera; & surely these are complex enough.—6
I am very glad indeed of your work, though I cannot yet follow all your reasoning.
In Haste | Most sincerely yours | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Brown-Séquard, Charles Édouard. 1875. On the hereditary transmission of the effects of certain injuries to the nervous system. Lancet, 2 January 1875, pp. 6–7.
Report of the Royal Commission on vivisection: Report of the Royal Commission on the practice of subjecting live animals to experiments for scientific purposes; with minutes of evidence and appendix; 1876 (C.1397, C.1397-1) XLI.277, 689. House of Commons Parliamentary Papers.
Variation 2d ed.: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1875.
Summary
In London yesterday for Vivisection Commission.
Is revising his chapter on Pangenesis [in Variation, 2d ed.] to allow that gemmules probably multiply in the reproductive organs.
Notes examples of inheritance of acquired characteristics cited by Brown-Séquard.
Doubts that double parentage is necessary for complex organisations.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10241
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Francis Galton
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- UCL Library Services, Special Collections (GALTON/1/1/9/5/7/18)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10241,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10241.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23