From G. J. Romanes [before 26 December 1875]1
18 Cornwall Terrace.
Professor Häckel’s paper on the Medusæ is called ‘Beitrag zur Naturgeschichte der Hydromedusen’ (Leipzig, 1865). Professor Huxley has lent me his copy, but says he wants it returned in a week or two.2 I ought certainly to have the work by me next summer, so I thought that if you happen to have it and can spare it till next autumn, I need not send to Germany for it, remembering what you said when I last saw you. I should also much like to see the other paper of Häckel’s about cutting up the ova of Medusæ.3
I have an idea that you are afraid I am neglecting Pangenesis for Medusæ. If so, I should like to assure you that such is not the case. Last year I gave more time to the former than to the latter inquiry; and although the results proved very disproportionate, this was only due to the fact that the one line of work was more difficult than the other.4 However, I always expected that the first year would require to be spent in breaking up the ground, and I am quite satisfied with the experience which this work has brought me. I confess, however, that but for personal reasons I should have postponed Pangenesis and worked the Medusæ right through in one year. There is a glitter about immediate results which is very alluring.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
French, Richard D. 1970. Darwin and the physiologists, or the medusa and modern cardiology. Journal of the History of Biology 3: 253–74.
Marginalia: Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990.
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
Asks to borrow Ernst Haeckel’s Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte der Hydromedusen (1865) [and Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Siphonophoren (1869)].
Has not been neglecting Pangenesis for Medusae.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10307
- From
- George John Romanes
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- London, Cornwall Terrace, 18
- Source of text
- E. D. Romanes 1896, p. 46
- Physical description
- inc
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10307,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10307.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23