Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A theory of heredity proposed by Charles Darwin in which gemmules containing hereditary information from every part of the body coalesce in the gonads and are incorporated into the reproductive cells.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A provisional hypothesis advanced by Darwin to explain the phenomena of reproduction in organisms.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Biol.) An hypothesis advanced by Darwin in explanation of heredity.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A mechanism for heredity proposed by Charles Darwin long before the true mechanism was discovered, according to which the cells of the body shed "gemmules" which collect in the reproductive organs prior to fertilization.

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