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Talk:The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication

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Deficiency in the description of pangenesis

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The description of gemmules in the text seems to have a misunderstanding when it says:

These were capable of generating a similar part of an organism, thus gemmules from a foot could generate a foot.

Having read chapter 27 of the book the only passage that can support this is when he suggests that gemmules are distributed throughout the body, such that for salamanders and crabs, a limb can be regenerated in place. Nowhere that I can see does he suggest that gemmules in different parts of the body are different as the above sentence would imply. Indeed his view in this respect is not incompatible with modern views. However I'm not a biologist and I'm not confident enough that I've understood Darwin's theory properly to change it directly and I'd welcome comments on this. Chris55 (talk) 23:34, 2 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]