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Charles Darwin's son, Leonard ALS re: his father, evolution, and Pangenesis. Refers to unpublished findings on ancestral cells, absolutely superb content!!
Charles Darwin's son, Leonard ALS re: his father, evolution, and Pangenesis. Refers to unpublished findings on ancestral cells, absolutely superb content!!
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Darwin Charles

Charles Darwin's son, Leonard, pens a letter and reflects on his father, evolution, and Pangenesis. ALso refers to unpublished findings on ancestral cells!

A phenomenal letter written by Darwin's son, Leonard Darwin, in reflective exploration of several of his father's principals. Leonard writes to Mr. Whitney, an an important leader in the field of eugenics and an author exploring Darwin's theories. He writes: "My father's Life + Letters … give such a complete account of his personal suppressions outside his published works that I fear that I can be of no use from that point of view … " However later Leonard does espouse in detail on his father's theory of Pangenenis, making references to Lamarckian and modern theories. To best place his letter in context, one needs to first step back to the "evolution" of Darwin's theories.

All modern metaphorical seeds from Darwin's theory of evolution began on the small island of the Galapagos. Darwin’s revolutionary theory was that new species arise naturally, by a process of evolution, rather than having been created—forever immutable—by God. According to the well-established creationist theory of Darwin’s day, the exquisite adaptations of many species—such as the hinges of the bivalve shell and the wings and plumes on seeds dispersed by air—were compelling evidence that a “designer” had created each species for its intended place in the economy of nature. Darwin had wholeheartedly accepted this theory, which was bolstered by the biblical account in Genesis, until his experiences in the Galapagos Islands began to undermine this way of thinking about the biological world. He subsequently added to his daring endorsement of evolution the crucial insight that species evolve by means of natural selection: variants that are better adapted to their environments are more likely to survive and reproduce. When he finally published "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection" in 1859, Darwin’s revolutionary theories not only recast the study of life but also turned the Galapagos Islands into hallowed scientific ground.

Merely ten years later, in 1868 Charles Darwin proposed Pangenesis, a developmental theory of heredity. He suggested that all cells in an organism are capable of shedding minute particles he called gemmules, which are able to circulate throughout the body and finally congregate in the gonads. These particles are then transmitted to the next generation and are responsible for the transmission of characteristics from parent to offspring. If any cells of the parent undergo changes as a result of environmental change, they will consequently transmit modified gemmules to their offspring. Soon after Darwin's pangenetic theory was published, Francis Galton, in a rudimentary experiment designed a series of blood transfusion experiments on differently pigmented rabbits to test its validity. He found no evidence in support of the existence of Darwin's gemmules and the concept of Pangenesis was largely abandoned. But fast forward to modern day science and both Darwin's and Lamarckian's view on genetics are again coming to the foray for reconsideration.

Leonard's letter is shown in part below, providing a glimpse into an unpublished observation with Polly (Darwin's dog) which suggested ancestral genetics:

"From the first, Charles Darwin accepted the view that acquired characters are inherited because it was then generally held by scientific men, and because it might give some assistance in accounting for evolution. In the later editions on the Origin he was induced to lay somewhat more stress of this so called Lamarckian view because the few men in whose judgement he relied held that- he was placing too much trust in natural selection. Henshaw Ward has well brought this aspect of the case - even in his recent excellent Lite on my father. In my judgement his friends were wrong and did him a serious injury. He was thus made to strive harder than would otherwise been the case to make his theory of pangenesis account for the inheritance of the effects of use and disuse. The gemmules had to be supposed to be transmitted from all parts of the body so as to conjointly take part in the process of reproduction. He certainly expected 'that gemmules would have been present in the blood, but this is no necessary port of his hypothesis…' If he had not had to account for the inheritance of acquired characters he might have hit on the modern conception that every cell in the organism contains a potential origin, in more or less perfect condition, from which the whole organism might arise - with 'pangenesis' or this kind there would no need for the transfer of gemmules about the body either by the blood or in any other manner except for acquired characters. My father used to point to a cut on the back of his little white dog Polly where the regrowth hair had come out brown, and to say that was the ancestral character coming out: a memory of mine which I doubt it has been published. He thus saw that 'the power of regrowth must be diffused throughout the whole body' (page 358). The modern idea is, I take it, that every cell in primitive organisms had the power of regrowth, and that the nature of the growth is decided by its organic environment. The new cell in growing has, as it were, to look no further than the original cell from which it sprang to know in what direction to develop - The old cell in this case of Polly had the potential power of regrowth of both a white and brown ancestor; and by some unplanned error it went back to the brown ancestor."

Pangenics, Eugenics, Cloning and Genetic Engineering - all modern 'metaphorical' seeds stemming from Darwin's theory of evolution and theories of pangenesis. As explosive of a field as genetics has been in the last century, we still grapple with understanding nature verses nurture, and its impact on genetics. In the last century, scientists from around the world revisited, proved, disproved, yet proved again variations on Darwin's theme on inheritance from acquired characteristics. Today we still fail to fully understand what genetic components are actually passed down to offspring that go beyond the obvious. Ancestral 'memory' cells have entered into the stream of Science Fiction. Recent reports of successful induction of heritable changes by blood transfusion are once again being reviewed. And detection of circulating nucleic acids and prions in plant sap and animal blood is considered as fresh evidence for the existence of gemmules. It is now apparent, over 150 years later, that a considerable revision of views on Darwin's Pangenesis must occur before a new comprehensive genetic theory can be achieved. Furthermore these theories were the precursor to today's Eugenics and the development of the ideal gene pool. At the extreme you have what occurred in Nazi Germany during the attempt to create an Aryan race, to the more recent endeavors of human cloning, human engineering and private preferential selection, at the other end of the spectrum.

A phenomenal letter which is as relevant today as it was when it was written, and when Charles Darwin first proposed his theory of evolution and pangentics. So much has changed yet so little is understood.

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