268 GEOEGE JOHN EOMANBS i89i 



meeting. But I should like to join the Society.^ 

 Only, please, postpone any suggestion about lecturing, 

 as this term I shall be dreadfully busy, between the 

 book and the experiments. H. has certainly been 

 very successful over a very difficult experiment. I 

 tried it in an elaborate way. But I lacked assistance 

 for the mechanical performance, and so intended to 

 do it here this term. Now I am saved the trouble, 

 but have gained experience. This prevents me from 

 regarding H.'s result as final, although, as you say, 

 valuable. My scepticism is founded on a queer freak 

 of heredity, which my own work showed me ; but as 

 I think I spoke too much about the experiments I 

 was trying, in future I shall adopt Weismann's method 

 of silence before publication. 



Yours ever, 



G-EO. J. EOMANES. 



About this time Mr. Eomanes was much interested 

 in a scheme for promoting the establishment of a gar- 

 den or farm for the purpose of studjdng questions of 

 hereditary transmission, or heredity. His object was 

 to afford facilities which at present do not exist for 

 observing the modifications produced in animals and 

 plants by subjecting them during long periods and in 

 successive generations to suitable external conditions, 

 and for testing the transmissibility of the modifications 

 so produced. He was anxious that such an Institution 

 should be founded in connection with one of the Uni- 

 versities, and with this view, circulated the following 

 memorandum. 



' The Oxford Natural History Society, 



