Title |
The History and Reception of Charles Darwin’s Hypothesis of Pangenesis
|
---|---|
Published in |
Journal of the History of Biology, February 2014
|
DOI | 10.1007/s10739-014-9377-0 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Kate Holterhoff |
Abstract |
This paper explores Charles Darwin's hypothesis of pangenesis through a popular and professional reception history. First published in The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication (1868), pangenesis stated that inheritance can be explained by sub-cellular "gemmules" which aggregated in the sexual organs during intercourse. Pangenesis thereby accounted for the seemingly arbitrary absence and presence of traits in offspring while also clarifying some botanical and invertebrates' limb regeneration abilities. I argue that critics largely interpreted Variation as an extension of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859), while pangenesis was an extension of natural selection. Contrary to claims that pangenesis was divorced from natural selection by its reliance on the inheritance of acquired characters, pangenesis's mid nineteenth-century reception suggests that Darwin's hypothesis responded directly to selection's critics. Using Variation's several editions, periodical reviews, and personal correspondence I assess pangenesis popularly, professionally, and biographically to better understand Variation's impact on 1860s and 70s British evolutionism and inheritance. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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United States | 2 | 22% |
United Kingdom | 1 | 11% |
Australia | 1 | 11% |
Unknown | 5 | 56% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
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Members of the public | 6 | 67% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 2 | 22% |
Scientists | 1 | 11% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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Portugal | 1 | 3% |
United Kingdom | 1 | 3% |
Canada | 1 | 3% |
Egypt | 1 | 3% |
Slovenia | 1 | 3% |
Unknown | 31 | 86% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Bachelor | 9 | 25% |
Researcher | 6 | 17% |
Student > Master | 5 | 14% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 2 | 6% |
Professor > Associate Professor | 2 | 6% |
Other | 6 | 17% |
Unknown | 6 | 17% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
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Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 15 | 42% |
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 3 | 8% |
Environmental Science | 2 | 6% |
Unspecified | 1 | 3% |
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science | 1 | 3% |
Other | 6 | 17% |
Unknown | 8 | 22% |