From G. J. Romanes [after 23 September 1876]1
I write to thank you for the slip about graft hybrids, and to say that as yet I have obtained no results myself. This place is too far north to admit of the seeds ripening properly after the plants have been thrown back several weeks by the operation.2 This applies especially to onions, so next year—the neck of Medusæ having now been broken—3 I intend to wait in London till all the grafting and planting out is finished. I do not think you will regret my not having followed such a course this year when you come to read the paper I am now writing. I never did such a successful four months’ work, and if as many years suffice to answer all the burning questions that are raised by it, I think they will require to be years well spent.
And this makes me remember that I have to apologise for the inordinate time I have kept your copy of Professor Häckel’s essay on Perigenesis.4 Since you sent it I have scarcely had any time for reading, and as you said there was no hurry about returning it, I have let it stand over till this paper is off my hands.
Lankester seems to have doubled up Slade in fine style. I suppose the latter has always trusted to his customers not liking to resort to violent methods.5 His defence in the ‘Times’ about the locked slates was unusually weak.6 ‘Once a thief always a thief’ applies, I suppose, to his case; but it is hard to understand how Wallace could not have seen him inverting the table on his head.7 In this we have another of those perplexing contradictions with which the whole subject appears to be teeming. I do hope next winter to settle for myself the simple issue between Ghost versus Goose.
Very sincerely and most respectfully yours, | Geo J. Romanes.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Doyle, Arthur Conan. 1926. The history of spiritualism. 2 vols. London: Cassell.
Romanes, Ethel Duncan. 1896. The life and letters of George John Romanes M.A., LL.D., F.R.S. London, New York, and Bombay: Longmans, Green, and Co.
Romanes, George John. 1876–7. An account of some new species, varieties, and monstrous forms of medusæ. [Read 6 April 1876 and 18 January 1877.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Zoology) 12 (1876): 524–31; 13 (1878): 190–4.
Summary
No results yet with graft-hybrids.
Has been writing a paper.
"Lankester seems to have doubled up [H.] Slade [the medium] in fine style".
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10584
- From
- George John Romanes
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Dunskaith
- Source of text
- E. D. Romanes 1896, p. 45
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10584,” accessed on 19 May 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10584.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24