34 GEORGE JOHN ROMANES 1875- 



I think a large number of successful results will be 

 necessary to convince physiologists. It is rash to 

 be sanguine, but it will be splendid if you succeed. 

 My object in writing has been to say that it has 

 only just occurred to me that I have not sent you a 

 copy of my ' Insectivorous Plants ; ' if you would 

 care to have a copy, and do not possess one, send 

 me a postcard, and one shall be sent. If I do not 

 hear, I shall understand. 



Yours very sincerely, 



CH. DARWIN. 



Dunskaith, Nigg P.O., Ross-shire, N.B. : JuJy 20, 1875. 



My dear Mr. Darwin, Your letter arrived just in 

 time to prevent my sending an order to my book- 

 seller for ' Insectivorous Plants,' for, of course, it is 

 needless to say that I shall highly value a copy from 

 yourself. At first I intended to wait until I should have 

 more time to enjoy the work, but a passage in this 

 week's ' Nature ' determined me to get a copy at once. 

 This passage was one about reflex action, and I am 

 very anxious to see what you say about this, because 

 in a paper I have prepared for the i B.A.' on Medusae 

 I have had occasion to insist upon the occurrence 

 of reflex action in the case of these, notwithstand- 

 ing the absence of any distinguishable system of 

 afferent and efferent nerves. But as physiologists 

 have been so long accustomed to associate the pheno- 

 mena of reflex action with some such distinguishable 

 system, I was afraid that they might think me rather 

 audacious in propounding the doctrine, that there is 



