Ɛpsilon

To G. J. Romanes   26 December 1875

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

Dec 26. 75

Dear Romanes

I will send the books off by railway on Monday or Tuesday. You may keep that on Medusæ until I ask for it which will probably be never. That on Siphonophora I should like to have back at some future time.1

So far from thinking that you have neglected Pangenesis I have been astonished and pleased that your splendid work on the jelly fishes did not make you throw every other subject to the dogs.2 Even if your experiments turn out a failure, I believe that there will be some compensation in the skill you will have acquired.

Yrs very sincerely | Ch Darwin

P.S. I have been having more correspondence with Galton about Pangenesis & my confusion is more confounded. with respect to the points in which he differs from me.—3

LS(A)

1
Romanes had asked whether he could borrow CD’s copies of Ernst Haeckel’s Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte der Hydromedusen (Haeckel 1865) and Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Siphonophoren (Haeckel 1869a); see letter from G. J. Romanes, [before 26 December 1875]. CD’s copy of Haeckel 1869a is in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

3.1 Ch … me.— 4.3] in CD’s hand

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10325,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10325