1877 NEKVES OF AURELIA 65 



equal ease in all directions in this particular case. 

 But what a fine case that of the Aurelia is ! 



Forgive me for bothering you with another note. 



Yours very sincerely, 



C. DAKWIN. 



From Gr. J. 'Romanes to C. Darwin, Esq. 



Dunskaith, Ross-shire, N.B. : August 13, 1877. 



I thought you had given me quite enough praise 

 in your first letter, but am not on that account the 

 less pleased at the high compliment you pay me 

 in the second one. The ending up was what the 

 people at the Institution * seemed to like best. 



Pray do not think that I have yet made up my 

 mind about the ' muslin.' On the contrary, the more 

 I work at the tissues of Aurelia the more puzzled I 

 become, so that I am thankful for all criticisms. If 

 Aurelia stood alone, I should be inclined to take your 

 view, and attribute blocking of contractile waves in 

 spiral strips, &c., to some accidental strain previously 

 suffered by the tissue at the area of blocking. But 

 the fact that in Tiaropsis the polypite is so quick and 

 precise in localising a needle prick, seems to show 

 that here there must be something more definite 

 in the way of conducting tissue than in Drosera, 

 although I confess it is most astonishing how precise 

 the localising function, as described by you, is in the 

 latter. In * Nature ' I did not express my doubts, 

 but it was because I feared there may yet turn out to 

 be a skeleton in the cupboard that I kept all these 



1 He had just lectured at the Royal Institution. 



