From Francis Galton   25 April 1871

My dear Darwin

I am grieved beyond measure, to learn that I have misrepresented your doctrine,— and the only consolation I can feel is that your letter to ‘Nature’ may place the doctrine in a clearer light and attract more attention to it.¹ I write hurriedly, as time is important, to save the mornings post, in order to point out two passages which, I hope, in your letter to Nature, you will explain at length, so as to remove the false impression of Pangenesis under which I & probably others labour. In “Domestication Animals &c” p 374 “… throw of minute granules or atoms, which circulate freely throughout the system …”² & p. 379 “… the gemmules .... . must be thoroughly diffused; nor does this seem improbable considering … the steady circulation of fluids throughout the body.”³

(Is there not also, a passage in which the words “circulating fluid” are used?— I cannot hurriedly lay my hand on it, but believe it to exist)⁴

Believe me—necessary in great haste—very | sincerely yours | Francis Galton