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370
Hereditary Genius
lock yields, a forward movement is made, the elements of the crowd
fall into slightly varied combinations, but in a few seconds there is
another dead lock, which is relieved, after a while, through just the
same processes as before. Each of these formations of the crowd, in
which they have found themselves in a dead lock, is a position of
stable equilibrium, and represents a typical attitude.
It is easy to form a general idea of the conditions of stable
equilibrium in the organic world, where one element is so correlated
with another that there must be an enormous number of unstable
combinations for each that is capable of maintaining itself unchanged,
generation after generation.
I will now make a few remarks on the subject of individual
variation. The gemmules whence every cell of every organism is
developed, are supposed, in the theory of Pangenesis, to be derived
from two causes: the one, unchanged inheritance; the other, changed
inheritance. Mr. Darwin, in his latter work, “Variation of Animals and
Plants under Domestication,” shows very clearly that individual
variation is a somewhat more important feature than we might have
expected. It becomes an interesting inquiry to determine how much
of a person's constitution is due, on an average, to the unchanged
gifts of a remote ancestry, and how much to the accumulation of
individual variations. The doctrine of Pangenesis gives excellent
materials for mathematical formulae, the constants of which might be
supplied through averages of facts, like those contained in my tables,
if they were prepared for the purpose. My own data are too lax to go
upon; the averages ought to refer to some simple physical
characteristic, unmistakeable in its quality, and not subject to the
doubts which attend the appraisement of ability. Let me remark, that
there need be no hesitation in accepting averages for this purpose; for
the meaning and value of
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