1880 SCIENTIFIC CONTROVERSY 93 



The amount of work he did was very considerable. 

 His books, ' Animal Intelligence/ ' Mental Evolution 

 in Animals/ ' Mental Evolution in Man/ ' Jelly-Fish 

 and Star-Fish/ i Darwin and after Darwin/ ' An Exa- 

 mination of Weismannism/ represent an enormous 

 amount of reading and thought ; and besides all these, 

 there was experimental work in University College 

 and in his own laboratory in Scotland, and a succes- 

 sion of important articles in reviews, chiefly the 

 1 Nineteenth Century/ ' Fortnightly ' and ' Contempo- 

 rary ' Eeviews, and ' Nature.' He was elected to the 

 Fellowship of the Eoyal Society in 1879. 



It would be quite absurd to deny that Mr. 

 Romanes liked a fair and free fight, and there was a 

 good deal of scientific controversy, but he was abso- 

 lutely incapable of anything but fairness, and never 

 imported into private life any quarrel in print. He 

 had plenty of stiff fights, chiefly with Mr. Thiselton- 

 Dyer, Professor Lankester, and Mr. Wallace, but the 

 first two were always his friends, and with the latter 

 he had a very slight acquaintance. The following 

 letter, though it belongs to a later date, will show his 

 feelings on the subject of controversy : 



Christ Church, Oxford. 



Dear Professor Meldola, I trust that our differ- 

 ences and disagreements as presented in ' Nature/ 

 will not disturb our relations in private. Anyhow, I 

 send the inclosed circular, which I am addressing to 

 English biologists, and hope you will testify to your 

 desire for ' facts ' by signing the memorial. 



Yours truly, 



GEO. J. ROMANES. 



