ules themselves if
Pangenesis be true. The objection, however, appears to many to be
formidable. To admit the power of spontaneous division and multiplication
in such rudimentary structures, seems a complete contradiction. The
gemmules, by the hypothesis of Pangenesis, are the ultimate organized
components of the body, the absolute organic atoms of which each body is
composed; how then _can_ they be divisible? Any part of a gemmule would be
an impossible (because a _less_ than possible) quantity. If it is divisible
into still smaller organic wholes, as a germ-cell is, it must be made up as
the germ-cell is, of subordinate component atoms, which are then the _true_
gemmules. This process may be repeated _ad infinitum_, unless we get to
true organic atoms, the true gemmules, whatever they may be, and they
necessarily will be incapable of any process of spontaneous fission. It is
remarkable that Mr. Darwin brings forward in support of gemmule fission,
the observation that "Thuret has seen the zoospore of an alga divide
itself, and both halves germinate." Yet on the hypothesis of Pangenesis,
the zoospore of an alga must contain gemmules from all the cells of the
parent algae, and from all the parts of all their less remote ancestors in
all their stages of existence. What wonder then that such an excessively
complex body should divide and multiply; and what parity is there between
such a body and a gemmule? A steam-engine and a steel-filing might equally
well be compared together.

Professor Delpino makes a further objection which, however, will only be of
weight in the eyes of Vitalists. He says,[226] Pangenesis is not to be
received because "it leads directly to the negation of a specific vital
principle, co-ordinating and regulating all the movements, acts, and
functions of the individuals in which it is incarnated. For Pangenesis of
the individual is a term without meaning. If, in contemplating an {216}
animal of high organization, we regard it purely as an aggregation of
developed gemmules, although these gemmules have been evolved successively
one after the other, and one within the other, notwithstanding they elude
the conception of the _real and true individual_, these problematical and
invisible gemmules must be regarded as so many individuals. Now, that real,
true, living individuals exist in nature, is a truth which is persistently
attested to us by our consciousness. But how, then, can we explain that a
great