1893 AETICLES ON WEISMANNISM 323 



March 19. 



I have got Weismann's new book, ' The Germ- 

 Plasm.' It is a much more finished performance 

 than the 'Essays.' In fact, he has evidently been 

 consulting botanists, reading up English literature 

 on the subject, so he has anticipated nearly all the 

 points of my long criticisms. This is a nuisance. 



Per contra, since coming here I have heard of no 

 less than three additional cases of cats which have 

 lost their tails afterwards having tailless kittens. I 

 wish to goodness I had been more energetic in get- 

 ting on with my experiments about this, so I have 

 written to John to get me twelve kittens to meet me 

 on my return. It would be a grand thing to knock 

 down W.'s whole edifice with a cat's tail. 



The monotony of life here is becoming intolerable. 

 There is nothing to write about. 



You will have seen that Taine is dead. I was 

 just about to write to him, to ask if he would be the 

 Romanes lecturer. 



March 21. 



Here is an odd thing. I find that Weismann in 

 his new book has discussed all the points raised by 

 Spencer. So Spencer and I have been hammering 

 away at things which W. has already written upon. 

 Luckily, he says about what I anticipated he would 

 say (see my article), but how absurd a fiasco ! I 

 have written a postscript to go by the mail, hoping 

 it may arrive in time to be bound up as a separate 

 slip before the issue of April number, explaining that 



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