Ɛpsilon

From G. J. Romanes   16 October 1881

Garvock, Bridge of Earn, Perthshire:

October 16, 1881.

My dear Mr. Darwin,—

If I did not know you so well, I should think that you are guilty of what our nurse calls ‘mock modesty.’ At least I know that if I, or anybody else, had written the book which I reviewed, your judgment would have been the first to endorse all I have said. I never allow personal friendship to influence what I say in reviews; and if I am so uniformly stupid as to ‘over-estimate the value of all you do,’ it is at any rate some consolation to know that my stupidity is so universally shared by all the men of my generation. But your letters are to me always psychological studies, and especially so when, as in this one, you seem without irony intentionally grim to refer to my work in juxtaposition with your own.1

The proof-sheets are coming in, and I suppose the book will be out in a month or two. I do not know why they are so slow in setting up the type. But, as I said once before, this book will not be so good (or so little bad) as the one that is to follow.2

Ewart and I have been working at the Echinoderms again, and at last have found the internal nervous plexus. Also tried poisons, and proved still further the locomotor function of the pedicellariæ.3

I observed a curious thing about anemones.4 If a piece of food is placed in a pool or tank where a number are closed, in a few minutes they all expand: clearly they smell the food.

I am deeply sorry to hear that you feel ‘worn out,’ but cannot imagine that the reviewers have done with you yet.

The vivisection fight does not promise well. Like yourself, most of the champions do not like the idea.5

G. J. Romanes.

1
See letter to G. J. Romanes, 14 October [1881]. CD had referred to Romanes’s review of Earthworms (G. J. Romanes 1881b) as ‘splendid’.
2
Romanes was correcting proof-sheets of Animal intelligence (G. J. Romanes 1882) while preparing a second work, Mental evolution in animals (G. J. Romanes 1883a).
3
Romanes and James Cossar Ewart had already published ‘Observations on the locomotor system of Echinodermata’ (G. J. Romanes and Ewart 1881). Romanes published his further observations, including the research on poisons, in ‘Observations on the physiology of Echinodermata’ (G. J. Romanes 1883b).
4
Sea anemones (order Actiniaria) are related to jellyfish and corals; their tentacles, armed with stinging cells, expand to catch passing prey.
5
Vivisection had been suggested as a ‘symposium-like’ topic in the monthly magazine Nineteenth Century and CD had been asked by Romanes to contribute (see letter from G. J. Romanes, 31 August 1881 and nn. 2 and 4). CD declined and also objected to the term ‘symposium’, since strictly speaking it referred to a drinking party (see letter to G. J. Romanes, 2 September 1881 and n. 3).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13405,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13405