1872-1876] Backgammon 221 



ought to grieve them, for death at my great age is rest. I 

 have earnestly prayed for it. I particularly wish that none 

 of my relations should be summoned to my bedside." 



Emma Darwin to her son Leonard in New Zealand. 



Nov. 8, 1875. 



F. went to the Vivisection Commission at two. Lord 

 Cardwell came to the door to receive him and he was treated 

 like a Duke. They only wanted him to repeat what he had 

 said in his letter (a sort of confession of faith about the 

 claims of physiology and the duty of humanity) and he had 

 hardly a word more to add, so that it was over in ten 

 minutes, Lord C. coming to the door and thanking him. It 

 was a great compliment to his opinion, wanting to have it 

 put upon the minutes. 



Every evening for many years my father and mother 

 played two games of backgammon. This was a very serious 

 function, and, when things were going badly with him, he 

 might be heard to exclaim " bang your bones," a quota- 

 tion from Swift's Journal to Stella. He won most games, 

 but she won most gammons. In a letter to Professor Asa 

 Gray (Jan. 28, 1876) he wrote: 'Pray give our very kind 

 remembrances to Mrs Gray. I know that she likes to hear 

 men boasting, it refreshes them so much. Now the tally 

 with my wife in backgammon stands thus: she, poor 

 creature, has won only 2490 games, whilst I have won, 

 hurrah, hurrah, 



2795 games!" 



Charles Darwin to his son Francis. 



HOPEDENE, Monday 30th [1876]. 



... If your case of Teazle 1 holds good it is a wonderful 

 discovery. Try whether pure water or weak infusion of raw 



1 The leaves of the teasel form cups, in which water collects and 

 drowned insects accumulate. The moving filaments which I observed 

 were supposed to absorb the products of decay and thus nourish the 

 plant. I was probably wrong in believing the filaments to be proto- 

 plasmic; their true character remains an unsolved problem. F. D. 



