To G. J. Romanes [4 November 1875]1
6. Q. Anne St.
Thursday 8th
My dear Romanes
I came up here yesterday to be examined by vivisection Commissioners, but return home today & hope soon to receive the carrots.2 I do not think there will be a chance to get the plant to seed during the winter. I will enquire & read up; I shd think the roots ought to be kept as dormant as possible all winter & then start them in spring out of doors. The mere diffusion of colour from side to side though curious does not seem to me very important. If the seed wd yield white & red or mottled carrots it wd be grand— I hope you have got pure seeds of the 2 grafted kind to sow at the same time.3
I saw for hour B. Sanderson4 & he is the first man who seemed to me to appreciate physiological importance of [fixing] graft-Hybrids. He told me a little about the medusæ— I do not yet fully understand the case, but enough to see that you have done splendid work & I most heartily congratulate you.—5
Your papers in Nature, especially the last is most curious & amused & interested us all greatly, I never read anything funnier than about the ferrets.—6 It is also very important. It is too late about the sternums, but I did add a note giving your belief.—7 You shall hear when I have seen carrots
Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Report of the Royal Commission on vivisection: Report of the Royal Commission on the practice of subjecting live animals to experiments for scientific purposes; with minutes of evidence and appendix; 1876 (C.1397, C.1397-1) XLI.277, 689. House of Commons Parliamentary Papers.
Variation 2d ed.: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1875.
Summary
Mentions his appearance before Vivisection Commission.
Discusses his plans for planting and observing the carrots sent by GJR.
Mentions views of J. S. Burdon Sanderson on graft-hybrids.
Comments on GJR’s paper ["Instinct and acquisition", Nature 12 (1875): 553–4].
[Letter incorrectly dated "Thursday 8th" by CD.] [!? shd be note not synopsis]
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10239
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- George John Romanes
- Sent from
- London, Queen Anne St, 6
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.478)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10239,” accessed on 21 May 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10239.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23