166 Lift and Letters of Francis Gallon 



work, otherwise it is haixl to niulerstan<l why the further work was carried 

 out, especially why in association witii Darwin, who had denied its hearing 

 on Pangenesis. 



There was evidently a genxl deal ot i.'orresj)«»ndenee, now sadly missing — 

 which would have explainetl Darwin's views on these lenewed experiments — 

 during the summer of 1871. We shall now put before the reader the 

 remainder of this somewhat fragmentiiry correspondence, using it as a frame 

 for Galton's earlier work on heredity, which we shall discuss as it is referred 

 to. Some few of the letters of Galton have been printed in the preceding 

 cha))ter ; othei-s are omitted as merely referring to the arrangement of 

 meetings in London or at Down. 



(14) We are now in Yorkshir*-. (Addi-fim) V2, Kutlwii Gatk, London, Sfpt. l.'J 71. 



My dkar Darwin, I had proposod wiiting to you, in a few diiys' time, alwut the rabbits 

 when I received your letter. First, let uie tliank you very much for the kind care you have 

 taken of them. Secondly — I grieve to hear from you, that your holiday hits not l)een so much 

 of a success as you had ho|K»d so far as health is concerned and, thirdly on my own part, I am 

 glad to say, I am and have been particularly well (except only a boil inside the ear, which hurt 

 badly for a few days). 



To return to the rabbits: — Will you kindly prevent the bucks having any further access to 

 the does, and make away with all the young except, sjiy, 4 or 5 as a reserve in cose of continued 

 accident in the forthcoming series of o{)erations. As soon as I return to town, towards the end 

 of Octoljcr, I will ask you to send me the old rabbits, and will l)egin at once to cro.ss-circulate 

 every one of them. My presj-nt a-ssistant (a most ac'coniplishcd youii;; M.li. in medical science) 

 haa not the manipulative skill of my old friend and I fear 1 shall have an undue proportion of 

 oorpees, but there fwigl be tovte successes out of the 3 does and 3 bucks tiiat you have and the 

 other 3 that I have. 



Latterly, my whole heart has been in rats; white, old English black, and wild grey, wliich 

 I have had Siame-sed together in pairs, chiefly white and wild grey (for my stock of black is low), 

 in a largo nuraljer of cases — perhaps 30 or 40 pair. Thwe have iMsen fairly succ(w.sful ojierations 

 ao far as the well-being and comfort of the animals is concerned, but unexpecte<l, out of-the-way 

 accidents, are c<jntinually <x;curring. One pair died after 03 (about) days of [union] and 

 injection into the body of the one passed into the other. I hope in this way to test Pangenesis 

 better than by the cross-circulation for if even 1 drop of blood per hour pusses froui rat to rat, 

 a volume equal to the entire contents of the circulation of either will be interchaiigwl in 10 days, 

 and this is equal in its effects to a pretty complete intermingling of the bloods. All crystalloids 

 diffuse readily from rat to rat (as poisons) through the tissues, and as we know that eggs of 

 entozoa arc carried through the veins by the blood, it seems that a long continued Siamese 

 union would be a valuable means of experiment. 



We look forward with much pleasure to our return to town, to see your daughter in hor 

 new house. I do not think thut 1 wrote myself, for my wife was writing to oiler you, wliich I 

 do now, my lieartiest congratulations on the event. But, you must mi.ss her. 



Ever sincerely yours, Francis Galton. 



(16) 42, Rutland Gate, S.W. Nov. 9/71. 



Mt dkar Darwin, I had not the least doubt but that I could have sent you before now 

 definite results about my rabbits, but I cannot:— you must have patience with me and wait yet 

 longer. The cold has killed one litter to which I had looke<I forward, and 1 have had a series 

 of other mishaps not worth specifying, the result of which is that I have only one silver grey 

 litter to go by — vizi^that of which I told you, which included a yellow tme, slate fi,r^y on the 

 belly, fri</i #cni<» irhi(f on hit tail. I should have thought this a great success but it may he 

 pronounced a 'yellow smut'! Another result is that I have built a go<Kl serviceable little house 

 for the raV)bitg in m}* own backyard and have all the l)est of them under my own eye, now. 

 The litt.r tliHt ijii-d from cold, looked very hopefully marke<l — liut 1 think one cannot trust to, 



