Thirdly, is it not literally inconceivable that this Neo-Lamarckian explanation can be the true one? Can it be seriously contemplated that there is any such mechanism as the explanation must needs assume? If it is difficult to accept such a machinery as is supposed by the theory of pangenesis, whereby every cell in the body casts off “gemmules,” which are the carriers of heredity from their respective tissues to the germinal elements, what are we to say of such a machinery as the following:—A machinery which distributes through the body of a female gemmules from the disintegrated spermatozoa of her mate; which distributes them _selectively_, so that they shall all eventually lodge in those tissue-cells of the female which correspond, part for part, with the tissue-cells of the male from which they were originally derived; which then insures that when a gemmule has thus reached its appropriate cell in the female body, it will thereupon modify the pre-existing gemmules in that cell, so that when they are shed and go to form the germinal contents of future ova, they endow the latter with the hereditary qualities of the male in question? Such, it seems to me, is a fair statement of the whole case up to date. But I think it may be apposite now to publish the main results of an inquiry on which I have been engaged for the last three years. First as to the facts. The investigations have been pursued on three different lines: (1) I raised discussions on the subject in the principal breeders’ and fanciers’ journals of this country, and also of America. (2) I entered into private correspondence with contributors of the largest experience, and also with professional and amateur breeders, fanciers, &c., who addressed me directly on the subject. (3) I started experiments with the varieties which these inquiries indicated as most likely to yield positive results. At present nothing need be said with regard to these experiments, because they are not sufficiently matured. But it is desirable to state the general upshot of the correspondence.