Ɛpsilon

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.

incomplete

1
The date is based on the relationship between this letter and the letter to G. J. Romanes, 26 December 1875.
2
Thomas Henry Huxley had lent Romanes a copy of Ernst Haeckel’s work on medusae (Haeckel 1865), the first (and only) volume of which is a monograph on the family Geryonidae (now Geryoniidae); he had recommended the work after Romanes had delivered the Croonian Lecture on the locomotor system of medusae at the Royal Society of London on 16 December (G. J. Romanes 1875b, p. 270). CD had received a copy from Haeckel in 1865 (see Correspondence vol. 13, letter from Ernst Haeckel, 11 November 1865). For the significance of Romanes’s work on medusae, and the relationship between physiology and evolutionary theory, see French 1970.
3
Romanes refers to Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Siphonophoren (On the developmental history of siphonophores; Haeckel 1869), which he probably wanted while writing his article on new species, varieties, and monstrous forms of medusae (G. J. Romanes 1876–7). CD’s annotated copy of Haeckel 1869 is in the Darwin Library–CUL (see Marginalia 1: 355).
4
Romanes might have supposed that CD thought he was neglecting pangenesis experiments from CD’s suggestion that he try skin grafts on pigeons (see letter to G. H. Romanes, 17 [December 1875]). Romanes had first suggested that he attempt to find experimental evidence for CD’s hypothosis of pangenesis in December 1874 (see Correspondence vol. 22, letter to G. J. Romanes, 16 December 1874). He undertook plant-grafting experiments throughout 1875, but did not publish on the topic. The first of his papers on medusae was submitted to the Royal Society in 1875 (G. J. Romanes 1875b).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10307,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10307