1875 HEST MEETING WITH DAEWIN 13 



ing, when at Cambridge, in Dr. Michael Foster's 

 laboratory, and was a member of that band who 

 formed the nucleus of what was destined to be the 

 famous physiological school of Cambridge. Side by 

 side with Mr. Eomanes were working Mr. Gaskell, Mr. 

 Dew Smith, and others now well known for their work 

 and achievements. 



In some ways Mr. Eomanes suffered from not 

 remaining at Cambridge and becoming a permanent 

 member of the band. 



It is impossible not to feel that had he stayed on 

 at the University he would have devoted himself 

 more and more to strictly experimental work and less 

 to what may be called philosophical natural history. 

 Some will regard his removal as a misfortune, and 

 others as a happy accident, but the might-have-beens 

 of life are never very profitable subjects for specula- 

 tion. 



In order to be with his now widowed mother, he 

 returned to London, and made his home with her and 

 his sisters. They spent their summers at Dunskaith, 

 and Mr. Eomanes embarked on researches on the 

 nervous system of the Medusae. He began also to work 

 in the physiological laboratory of University College 

 under Dr. Sharpey and Dr. Burdon Sanderson. Both 

 he regarded as masters and friends, and perhaps, 

 next to Mr. Darwin, Dr. Sanderson was the scientific 

 friend George Eomanes most valued and loved, 

 although it is impossible to overrate what he owed 

 to Cambridge, and to those early longings for bio- 

 logical study which were inspired by Dr. Foster. 



As has been said, a letter in ' Nature ' attracted 

 Mr. Darwin's notice, and somewhere about 1874 he 

 invited Mr. Eomanes to call on him. 



From that time began an unbroken friendship, 

 marked on one side by absolute worship, reverence, 

 and affection, on the other by an almost fatherly kind- 



