14 GEOEGE JOHN ROMANES 1873- 



at the University he would have devoted himself 

 more and more to strictly experimental work and less 

 to what may be called philosophical natural history. 

 Some will regard his removal as a misfortune, and 

 others as a happy accident, but the might-have-beens 

 of life are never very profitable subjects for specula- 

 tion. 



In order to be with his now widowed mother, he 

 returned to London, and made his home with her and 

 his sisters. They spent their summers at Dunskaith, 

 and Mr. Romanes embarked on researches on the 

 nervous system of the Medusa. He began also to work 

 in the physiological laboratory of University College 

 under Dr. Sharpey and Dr. Burdon Sanderson. Both 

 he regarded as masters and friends, and perhaps, 

 next to Mr. Darwin, Dr. Sanderson was the scientific 

 friend George Romanes most valued and loved, 

 although it is impossible to overrate what he owed 

 to Cambridge, and to those early longings for bio- 

 logical study which were inspired by Dr. Foster. 



As has been said, a letter in ' Nature ' attracted 

 Mr. Darwin's notice, and somewhere about 1874 he 

 invited Mr. Romanes to call on him. 



From that time began an unbroken friendship, 

 marked on one side by absolute worship, reverence, 

 and affection, on the other by an almost fatherly kind- 

 ness and a wonderful interest in the younger man's 

 work and in his career. That first meeting was a 

 real epoch in Mr. Romanes' life. Mr. Darwin met 

 him, as he often used to tell, with outstretched hands, 

 a bright smile, and a ' How glad I am that you are so 

 young ! ' 



Perhaps no hero-worship was ever more unselfish, 

 more utterly loyal, or more fully rewarded. As time 

 went on, and intimacy increased, and restraint wore 



