374 LIFE AT DOWN. A-.TAT. 33-4$. [1849^ 



in respect to evidence of curative processes, viz. that no one 

 knows in disease what is the simple result of nothing being 

 done, as a standard with which to compare homoeopathy, 

 and all other such things. It is a sad flaw, I cannot but 

 think, in my beloved Dr. Gully, that he believes in everything. 



When Miss was very ill, he had a clairvoyant girl to report 



on internal changes, a mesmerist to put her to sleep an 



homoeopathist, viz. Dr. , and himself as hydropathist ! 



and the girl recovered." 



A passage out of an earlier letter to Fox (December, 1844) 

 shows that he was equally sceptical on the subject of mes- 

 merism : " With respect to mesmerism, the whole country 

 resounds with wonderful facts or tales ... I have just 

 heard of a child, three or four years old (whose parents and 

 self I well knew), mesmerised by his father, which is the first 

 fact which has staggered me. I shall not believe fully till I 

 see'or hear from good evidence of animals (as has been stated 

 is possible) not drugged, being put to stupor ; of course the 

 impossibility would not prove mesmerism false ; but it is the 

 only clear experimentum crucis, and I am astonished it has 

 not been systematically tried. If mesmerism was investi- 

 gated, like a science, this could not have been left till the 

 present day to be done satisfactorily, as it has been I believe 

 left. Keep some cats yourself, and do get some mesmeriser 

 to attempt it. One man told me he had succeeded, but his 

 experiments were most vague, as was likely from a man who 

 said cats were more easily done than other animals, because 

 they were so electrical !"] 



C. Darwin to C. Lyell. 



Down, December 4th [1849]. 



MY DEAR LYELL, This letter requires no answer, and I 

 write from exuberance of vanity. Dana has sent me the 

 Geology of the United States Expedition, and I have just 



