I fancy Owen thinks much of this doctrine of his; I never from the first believed it, and I cannot but think that the same power is concerned in producing aphides without fertilisation, and producing, for instance, nails on the amputated stump of a man's fingers, or the new tail of a lizard.

By the way, I saw somewhere during the last week or so a statement of a man rearing from the same set of eggs winged and wingless aphides, which seemed new to me.

Does not some Yankee say that the American viviparous aphides are winged?
I am particularly glad that you are ruminating on the act of fertilisation: it has long seemed to me the most wonderful and curious of physiological problems.

I have often and often speculated for amusement on the subject, but quite fruitlessly.

Do you not think that the conjugation of the Diatomaceae will ultimately throw light on the subject?
But the other day I came to the conclusion that some day we shall have cases of young being produced from spermatozoa or pollen without an ovule.