IS 76 EEPLEX ACTION IN MEDUSA 33 



Dunskaith, Xigg P.O., Eoss-shire, N.B. : July 20, 1875. 



My dear Mr. Darwin, — ^Your letter arrived, just in 

 time to prevent my sending an order to my book- 

 seller for ' Insectivorous Plants,' for, of course, it is 

 needless to say that I shall highly value a copy from 

 yourself. At first I intended to Tyait until I should have 

 more time to enjoy the work, but a passage in this 

 week's ' Xature ' determined me to get a copy at once. 

 This passage was one about reflex action, and I am 

 very anxious to see what you say about this, because 

 in a paper I have prepared for the ' B.A.' on Medusae 

 I have had occasion to insist upon the occurrence 

 of reflex action in the case of these, notwithstand- 

 ing the absence of any distinguishable system of 

 afferent and efferent nerves. But as physiologists 

 have been so long accustomed to associate the pheno- 

 mena of reflex action with some such distinguishable 

 system, I was afraid that they might think me rather 

 audacious in propounding the doctrine, that thejre is 

 such a thing as reflex action without well-defined 

 structural channels for it to occur in. But if you 

 have found something of the same sort in. plants, of 

 course I shaU be very glad to have your authority to 

 quote. And I think it foUows deductively from the 

 general theory of evolution, that reflex action ought 

 to be present before the lines in which it flows are 

 sufficiently differentiated to become distinguishable as 

 nerves. 



I am very glad .that you are pleased with my pro- 

 gress so far. 



D 



