204 LIFE OF TEGETMEIER 



and the bad faith shown so upset Tegetmeier 

 that he lost his interest in the work and never 

 finished the book. Whatever the cause, however, 

 his work was wasted and a splendid opportunity 

 lost for publishing a book that is still, I am told, 

 to seek. 



In matters purely scientific, Tegetmeier was 

 primarily and mainly an observer, an investigator 

 of facts, and not a deducer of theories — a point 

 referred to by the Rev. J. N. Williams, B.A., in 

 some reminiscences of the late naturalist he 

 wrote in Monthly Hints on Poultry. In these, re- 

 ferring to Tegetmeier's research work for Darwin, 

 necessary before the latter could develop fully 

 his ideas on Variation, he says : " Neither always 

 quite hit the truth. And the theory Mr. Darwin 

 laboured so hard to make his own, and to state 

 at great length to the public, has been greatly 

 discredited in the highest quarters since his day. 

 Professor Virchow will have none of it, and he 

 is the greatest living authority of present times. 

 Tegetmeier, Darwin and Mendel were contempor- 

 aries. Yet it is a strange thing that Darwin 

 never seems to have heard of Mendel, nor Mendel 

 of Darwin. Mendelism is a fascinating study. 

 . . . Those who have given considerable time to 

 the study of it are in agreement with me that 

 Tegetmeier must have crossed more varieties of 

 poultry and pigeons than most men. I once 

 heard it stated that the late Mr. Enoch Hutton 



