Darwinism stated by Darwin himself: Characteristic passages from the writings of Charles DarwinDarwin, Charles
Science
Darwinism stated by Darwin himself: Characteristic passages from the writings of Charles Darwin
Darwin, Charles
Evolution (Biology)
The gemmules derived from each part or organ must be thoroughly
dispersed throughout the whole system. We know, for instance, that
even a minute fragment of a leaf of a begonia will reproduce the whole
plant; and that if a fresh-water worm is chopped into small pieces,
each will reproduce the whole animal. Considering also the minuteness
of the gemmules and the permeability of all organic tissues, the
thorough dispersion of the gemmules is not surprising. That matter
may be readily transferred without the aid of vessels from part to
part of the body, we have a good instance in a case recorded by Sir J.
Paget of a lady, whose hair lost its color at each successive attack
of neuralgia and recovered it again in the course of a few days. With
plants, however, and probably with compound animals, such as corals,
the gemmules do not ordinarily spread from bud to bud, but are confined
to the parts developed from each separate bud; and of this fact no
explanation can be given.
TWO OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
[Page 380.]
But we have here to encounter two objections which apply not only to
the regrowth of a part, or of a bisected individual, but to fissiparous
generation and budding. The first objection is that the part which is
reproduced is in the same stage of development as that of the being
which has been operated on or bisected; and in the case of buds,
that the new beings thus produced are in the same stage as that of
the budding parent. Thus a mature salamander, of which the tail has
been cut off, does not reproduce a larval tail; and a crab does not
reproduce a larval leg. In the case of budding it was shown in the
first part of this chapter that the new being thus produced does not
retrograde in development--that is, does not pass through those earlier
stages which the fertilized germ has to pass through. Nevertheless, the
organisms operated on or multiplying themselves by buds must, by our
hypothesis, include innumerable gemmules derived from every part or
unit of the earlier stages of development; and why do not such gemmules
reproduce the amputated part or the whole body at a corresponding early
stage of development?
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