SEPTEMBER n 



and devotion is by no means always to be found in the 

 professional nurse. 



I continue to quote typical letters on various subjects 

 .as they crop up. One kind old clergyman thought so 

 flatteringly of my powers that he suggests that I 

 should ' utilise the genius which has popularised your 

 book in some of those fields into which your book affords 

 glimpses why not write on heredity ? ' The fact is, as 

 I have already said, I am not able to write a treatise on 

 cooking and gardening, much less could I pretend to 

 give the world any information on great subjects con- 

 nected with science ; and heredity more especially is 

 peculiarly buried in darkness, even for experts. He con- 

 cludes a long and interesting letter as follows : ' Some 

 years ago Sir F. Galton sent me a paper of inquiries 

 (which he was circulating among doctors) as to the 

 physical and psychical history of three generations of 

 ancestors.' This idea of Sir F. Galton's has been a 

 favourite one with me for years. I have always thought 

 that it would be of the greatest interest in families if a 

 careful register were kept of people's health, diseases, and 

 death, so that some idea might be formed of the general 

 tendencies of family diseases, with their succeeding de- 

 velopment and treatment during three or four genera- 

 tions. 



It seems satisfactory that a great number of the news- 

 paper critics gave me credit for common-sense. Some 

 few passages in ' Sons and Daughters ' raised opposition, 

 but, I am bound to confess, much less than I expected. 

 My great disappointment was that I got so little actual 

 criticism I may even say, so little correction. In this, I 

 am told, I was ambitious, as most critics compose their 

 articles by a few quotations, and have neither time nor 

 inclination to really criticise. There was one excellent 

 exception in an interesting and friendly article in the 



