In Pursuit of the Gene

VIVA PANGENESIS © 17
Although Galton genuinely revered his cousin, who was by now undoubtedly
the most famous scientist in England and perhaps the world, he
did not accord Darwin’s scientific opinions any special status. In fact, Darwin’s
defense of pangenesis did not appear to influence Galton’s thinking
on the subject at all. Galton’s “apology” in the May 4 issue of Nature was actually
a spirited defense of his interpretation and not the least bit apologetic.
It had been misleading of Darwin to describe his gemmules as “circulating
freely” and to refer to “the steady circulation of fluids,” Galton
pointed out, as these phrases strongly encouraged one to think of blood.
“Blood has an undoubted claim to be called a circulating fluid, and when
that phrase is used, blood is always meant.” Furthermore the process of
particles moving through solids, as the gemmules were now supposed to
move through the body’s tissues, was properly spoken of as “dispersion,”
not “diffusion,” which applied, he said, more properly to the “movement in
or with fluids.” 53 These were all changes Darwin saw fit to include in the
later revised edition of the pangenesis chapter.
But the key paragraph of the letter consisted of an allegory that would
have been nearly indecipherable to anyone but Darwin. In the passage,
Galton relates the interaction between a wise tribal leader and his followers.
The scene is imagined to take place at the dawn of the invention of language
when “some wise ape-like animal . . . first thought of imitating the
growl of a beast of prey so as to indicate to his fellow-monkeys the nature
of expected danger.” Halfway through the narrative, Galton switches to the
first person, a change in point of view that would not be lost on Darwin. It
is “as if I had been assisting at such a scene,” Galton wrote. “As if, having
heard my trusted leader utter a cry, not particularly articulated, but to my
ears more like that of a hyena than any other animal.” Seeing as no one
had stirred, Galton takes it upon himself to investigate, “down a path of
which I had happily caught sight, into the plain below, followed by the approving
nods and kindly grunts of my wise and most respected chief.”
Upon returning with the happy news that it was a false alarm and there
was no hyena in the plain, he is told that he has misinterpreted his master’s
signal, that it was not a hyena in the plain, but rather a leopard in the trees