ch. xv.] VIVISECTION, 1881. 303 



ard." This appears from a letter of March 27, 1879, to his 

 cousin Reginald Darwin, in which he asks for any docu- 

 ments and letters which might throw light on the charac- 

 ter of Erasmus. This led to Mr. Reginald Darwin placing 

 in my father's hands a quantity of valuable material, in- 

 cluding a curious folio common-place book, of which he 

 wrote : " I have been deeply interested by the great book, 

 . . . reading and looking at it is like having communion 

 with the dead . . . [it] has taught me a good deal about 

 the occupations and tastes of our grandfather." 



Dr. Krause's contribution formed the second part of the 

 Life of Erasmus Darwin, my father supplying a " pre- 

 liminary notice." This expression on the title-page is some- 

 what misleading; my father's contribution is more than 

 half the book, and should have been described as a biog- 

 raphy. Work of this kind was new to him, and he wrote 

 doubtfully to Mr. Thiselton Dyer, June 18th : " God only 

 knows what I shall make of his life, it is such a new kind 

 of work to me." The strong interest he felt .about his fore- 

 bears helped to give zest to the work, which became a de- 

 cided enjoyment to him. With the general public the book 

 was not markedly successful, but many of his friends recog- 

 nised its merits. Sir J. D. Hooker was one of these, and to 

 him my father wrote, " Your praise of the Life of Dr. D. has 

 pleased me exceedingly, for I despised my work, and thought 

 myself a perfect fool to have undertaken such a job." 

 To Mr. Galton, too, he wrote, November 14 : 

 " I am extremely glad that you approve of the little Life 

 of our grandfather, for I have been repenting that I ever 

 undertook it, as the work was quite beyond my tether." 



THE VIVISECTION QUESTION. . 



Something has already been said of my father's strong 

 feeling with regard to suffering * both in man and beast. It 



* He once made an attempt to free a patient in a mad-house, who (as he 

 wrongly supposed) was sane. He was in correspondence with the gardener 

 at the asylum, and on one occasion he found a letter from the patient enclosed 

 with one* from the gardener. The letter was rational in tone and declared that 

 the writer was sane and wrongfully confined. 



My father wrote to the Lunacy Commissioners (without explaining the 

 source of his information) and in due time heard that the man had been visit- 

 ed by the Commissioners, and that he was certainly insane. Some time 

 afterward the patient was discharged, and wrote to thank my father for his 

 interference, adding that he had undoubtedly been insane when he wrote his 

 former letter. 



