From Francis Darwin to G. J. Romanes 7 June 1877
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
June 7. 1877
My dear Romanes,
My father is going off tomorrow morning for a rest of a month & asks me to write to you—1 He thanks you for your letter which has amused him much (as it did me) he says you should publish it in Nature.2 From a letter lately received from Fritz Müller I know there are some stinging plants ⟨(⟩Dalechampia) in Brazil, & from the way in which he spoke of the European stinging nettle I think it doesn't grow there. I sent his letter to nature & it will soon come out.3 He thinks plants protected by stinging hairs from ants, or by milky acrid juice, are specially well fitted for pasture for caterpillars. Try a sloth with stinging nettles. I believe the protecting ants keep the sloths from the Brazilian Cecropia peltata.4 My father thinks the guinea pig theory very probable. He has shown (I think in Animals & Plants) that the guinea pig is distinct from the Apereæ of La Plata: the wild parent of guinea pig is unknown5 My father will write about crossing if he has anything to say.6
I shall be delighted to do anything to help your Kew work. I am going to S’hampton in a few days so I fear I cannot look you up as you kindly suggest, I will some day however.7
My father thought there might be something in the ‘veneration’ theory.8 The religious or feudal feeling seems to me to give a nervous system to a community; not only by connecting all parts of the society by something that ⟨they⟩ feel to be powerful. But it seems ⟨to⟩ have the explosive or intensify⟨ing⟩ power of nervous tissue. If ⟨one⟩ thinks of Cromwells Ironside⟨s as⟩ an organism & compare them ⟨ ⟩ an organism with a body of ⟨ ⟩ one feels how the theocratic feeling “The Lo⟨rd is⟩ on our side” gives such contr⟨ ⟩ force to the Puritan organism tha⟨t⟩ the Royalist one is smashed.9
Yrs sincerely | Francis Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Allen, Grant. 1877. Physiological aesthetics. London: Henry S. King & Co.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Darwin, Francis. 1876e. On the glandular bodies on Acacia sphærocephala and Cecropia peltata serving as food for ants. With an appendix on the nectar-glands of the common brake fern, Pteris aquilina. [Read 1 June 1876.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 15 (1877): 398–409.
Variation 2d ed.: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1875.
Summary
CD is going away and has asked FD to thank GJR for his amusing letter [of 6 June], which CD thinks should be published in Nature. CD thinks the guinea pig theory very probable.
CD thinks there may be something in the ‘veneration’ theory.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10989F
- From
- Francis Darwin
- To
- George John Romanes
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Bodleian Libraries, Oxford (MS. Eng. d. 3823, fols. 154–5)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10989F,” accessed on 25 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10989F.xml