Oh. XV.] HONOURS. 291 



educated men whose lives are devoted either to scientific 

 investigation and education or to the mitigation or the removal 

 of the sufferings of their fellow-creatures ; though differences 

 of degree in regard to its practical application will be easily 

 discernible by those who study the evidence as it has been laid 

 before us." 



Again, according to the Commissioners (p. 10) : — 

 " The secretary of the Royal Society for the Prevention of 

 Cruelty to Animals, when asked whether the general tendency 

 of the scientific world in this country is at variance with 

 humanity, says he believes it to be very different indeed from 

 that of foreign physiologists; and while giving it as the 

 opinion of the society that experiments are performed which 

 are in their nature beyond any legitimate province of science, 

 and that the pain which they inflict is pain which it is not 

 justifiable to inflict even for the scientific object in view, he 

 readily acknowledges that he does not know a single case of 

 wanton cruelty, and that in general the English physiologists 

 have used anesthetics where they think they can do so with 

 safety to the experiment." 



I am, Sir, your obedient servant. 

 April 21. 



During the later years of my father's life there was * 

 growing tendency in the public to do him honour.* The 

 honours which he valued most highly were those which united 

 the sympathy of friends with a mark of recognition of his 

 scientific colleagues. Of this type was the article "Charles 

 Darwin," published in Nature, June 4, 1874, and written by 

 Asa Gray. This admirable estimate of my father's work in 

 science is given in the form of a comparison and contrast 

 between Robert Brown and Charles Darwin. 



To Gray he wrote : — 



" I wrote yesterday and cannot remember exactly what I said, 

 and now cannot be easy without again telling you how pro- 

 foundly I have been gratified. Every one, I suppose, occasion- 

 ally thinks that he has worked in vain, and when one of these 

 fits overtakes me, I will think of your article, and if that does 

 not dispel the evil spirit, I shall know that I am at the time 

 a little bit insane, as we all are occasionally. 



"What you say about Teleology f pleases me especially, 



* In 1867 he had received a distinguished honour from Germany, — the 

 order " Pour le Me rite." 



t "Let us recognise Darwin's great service to Natural Science in 

 bringing back to it Teleology ; so that instead of Morphology versus 

 Teleology, we shall have Morphology wedded to Teleology." Similar 



u 2 



