CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. MANTELL. 209 



FROM DR. MANTELL. 



February 28, 1845. 



POOR Mrs. Lardner, what madness must have 



possessed her ! I knew her well as Mrs. Heaviside, an 

 elegant fashionable woman, an affectionate wife and mother; 

 by no means of strong mind, and without any taste what- 

 ever for science of any kind. I dined with her, the last 

 time I dined out, before I left Brighton ; and when I heard 

 that a married woman from Brighton had eloped with the 

 villain Dr. L., Mrs. Heaviside was the last woman I should 

 have guessed as the party. Poor Captain H., when he 

 found she was eloped, had not the slightest idea that Dr. 

 L. had seduced her away. There are many astonishing 

 events of this kind which one cannot possibly unravel. I 

 have corresponded with Dr. L., but never saw him. Our 

 old friend, Mr. Bake well, who was a shrewd observer of 

 mankind, always thought badly of him, and regretted that 

 one so clever was so worthless 



TO DR. MANTELL. 



NEW HAVEN, July 22, 1845. 



MY VERT DEAR FRIEND, Although I wrote to you 

 only on the 13th instant, by the last steamer, still I will not 

 let the one now in port return without a response to your 

 very kind letter of June 21st, this day received. I thank 

 you for remembering me again so soon, but having, written 

 to you so recently and fully, I now take a small sheet and 

 just chat on as if you were here. I thank you for the ex- 

 tract from Sir J. Herschel's address. It is, in all respects, 

 a sound and judicious view. I have always, in my public 

 lectures, opposed the doctrine of equivocal generation, and 

 also, Lamarck's absurd theory of transmutation ; maintain- 

 ing that every new organized being or pair of beings was 

 the direct result of creative power, and that there is no 

 inherent tendency in matter to produce organized forms, 



VOL. II. 14 



