Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookt work on an attempt to make
out the function or use of the bloom or waxy secretion on the leaves and
fruit of many plants; but I doubt greatly whether our experiments will
tell us much. (280/4. "As it is we have made out clearly that with
some plants (chiefly succulent) the bloom checks evaporation--with
some certainly prevents attacks of insects; with some sea-shore plants
prevents injury from salt-water, and I believe, with a few prevents
injury from pure water resting on the leaves." (See letter to Sir W.
Thiselton-Dyer, "Life and Letters," III., page 341. A paper on the
same subject by Francis Darwin was published in the "Journ. Linn.
Soc." XXII.)) If you have any decided opinion whether plants with
conspicuously glaucous leaves are more frequent in hot than in temperate
or cold, in dry than in damp countries, I should be grateful if you
would add to your many kindnesses by informing me. Pray give my kind
remembrances to your son, and tell him that my son has been trying on
a large scale the effects of feeding Drosera with meat, and the results
are most striking and far more favourable than I anticipated.
LETTER 281. TO G.J. ROMANES.
(281/1. Published in the "Life and Letters" of Romanes, page 66.)
Down, Saturday Night [1877].
I have just finished your lecture (281/2. "The Scientific Evidence of
Organic Evolution: a Discourse" (delivered before the Philosophical
Society of Ross-shire), Inverness, 1877. It was reprinted in the
"Fortnightly Review," and was afterwards worked up into a book under
the above title.); it is an admirable scientific argument, and most
powerful. I wish that it could be sown broadcast throughout the land.
Your courage is marvellous, and I wonder that you were not stoned on
the spot--and in Scotland! Do please tell me how it was received in the
Lecture Hall. About man being made like a monkey (page 37 (281/3. "And
if you reject the natural explanation of hereditary descent, you can
only suppose that the Deity, in creating man, took the most scrupulous
pains to make him in the image of the ape" ("Discourse," page 37).)) is
quite new to me, and the argument in an earlier place (page 8 (281/4.
At page 8 of the "Discourse" the speaker referred to the law "which Sir
William Hamilton called the Law of Parsimony--or the law which forbids
us to assume the operation of higher causes when lower ones are found
sufficient to explain the desired effects," as constituting the "only
logical barrier between Science and Superstition.")) on the law of
parsimony admirably put. Yes, page 21 (281/5. "Discourse," page 21. If
we accept the doctrines of individual creations and ideal types, we
must believe that the Deity acted "with no other apparent motive than
to suggest to us, by every one of the observable facts, that the ideal
types are nothing other than the bonds of a lineal descent.") is new to
me. All strike me as very clear, and, considering small space, you have
chosen your lines of reasoning excellently.
The few last pages are awfully powerful, in my opinion.
Sunday Morning.--The above was written last night in the enthusiasm of
the moment, and now--this dark, dismal Sunday morning--I fully agree
with what I said.
I am very sorry to hear about the failures in the graft experiments, and
not from your own fault or ill-luck. Trollope in one of his novels gives
as a maxim of constant use by a brickmaker--"It is dogged as does it"
(281/6. "Tell 'ee what, Master Crawley;--and yer reverence mustn't think
as I means to be preaching; there ain't nowt a man can't bear if he'll
only be dogged. You go whome, Master Crawley, and think o' that, and
may be it'll do ye a good yet. It's dogged as does it. It ain't thinking
about it." (Giles Hoggett, the old Brickmaker, in "The Last Chronicle
of Barset," Volume II., 1867, page 188.))--and I have often and often
thought that this is the motto for every scientific worker. I am sure it
is yours--if you do not give up pangenesis with wicked imprecations.
By the way, G. Jager has brought out in "Kosmos" a chemical sort of
pangenesis bearing chiefly on inheritance. (281/7. Several papers by
Jager on "Inheritance" were published in the first volume of "Kosmos,"
1877.)
I cannot conceive why I have not offered my garden for your experiments.
I would attend to the plants, as far as mere care goes, with pleasure;
but Down is an awkward place to reach.
Would it be worth while to try if the "Fortnightly" would republish it
[i.e. the lecture]?
LETTER 282. TO T.H. HUXLEY.
(282/1. In 1877 the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on Mr. Darwin
by the University of Cambridge. At the dinner given on the occasion
by the Philosophical Society, Mr. Huxley responded to the toast of the
evening with the speech of which an authorised version is given by Mr.
L. Huxley in the "Life and Letters" of his father (Volume I., page 479).
Mr. Huxley said, "But whether the that doctrine [of evolution] be true
or whether it be false, I wish to express the deliberate opinion, that
from Aristotle's great summary of the biological knowledge of his time
down to the present day, there is nothing comparable to the "Origin of
Species," as a connected survey of the phenomena of life permeated and
vivified by a central idea."
In the first part of the speech there was a brilliant sentence which he
described as a touch of the whip "tied round with ribbons," and this was
perhaps a little hard on the supporters of evolution in the University.
Mr. Huxley said "Instead of offering her honours when they ran a chance
of being crushed beneath the accumulated marks of approbation of the
whole civilised world, the University has waited until the trophy
was finished, and has crowned the edifice with the delicate wreath of
academic appreciation.")
Down, Monday night, November 19th [1877].
I cannot rest easy without telling you more gravely than I did when we
met for five minutes near the Museum, how deeply I have felt the many
generous things (as far as Frank could remember them) which you said
about me at the dinner. Frank came early next morning boiling over with
enthusiasm about your speech. You have indeed always been to me a most
generous friend, but I know, alas, too well how greatly you overestimate
me. Forgive me for bothering you with these few lines.
(282/2. The following extract from a letter (February 10th, 1878) to his
old schoolfellow, Mr. J. Price, gives a characteristic remark about the
honorary degree.)
"I am very much obliged for your kind congratulations about the LL.D.
Why the Senate conferred it on me I know not in the least. I was
astonished to hear that the R. Prof. of Divinity and several other great
Dons attended, and several such men have subscribed, as I am informed,
for the picture for the University to commemorate the honour conferred
on me."
LETTER 283. TO W. BOWMAN.
(283/1. We have not discovered to what prize the following letter to the
late Sir W. Bowman (the well known surgeon) refers.)
Down, February 22nd, 1878.
I receiv |