ABSTRACT
The work on the gemmule hypothesis began with an unexpected letter from Francis Galton to Charles Darwin. Galton idea was to find out whether the hereditary units or gemmules of a black breed of rabbit could be passed by a blood transfusion in to a white breed, such as the Angora Albino, to see if the latter would then give rise to mongrel offspring showing features of both breeds of rabbit. Galton had rather uncritically adopted Darwin's views about the inheritance of gemmules and incorporated the ideas piecemeal in to his book Hereditary Genius. Galton certainly agreed that the exact nature of inheritance was one of the most pressing scientific problems of the day. To elucidate this accurately would be a very difficult task demanding an altogether unusual capacity for anyone attempting it.
