22 GEORGE JOHN ROMANES 1875- 



with which bisected seeds germinate is perfectly 

 astonishing. 



Very sincerely and most respectfully yours, 



Geo. J. Eomanes. 



P.S. — I have been to see Dr. Hooker, and found 

 his kindness and courtesy quite what you led me to 

 expect. Such men are rare. 



April 21, 1875. 



In returning you 's papers, I should like to say 



that the one on ' Inheritance ' appears to me quite de- 

 stitute of intelligible meaning. It is a jumble of the 

 same confused ideas upon heredity about which I 

 complained when you were at this house. How in 

 the world can ' force ' act without any material on 

 which to act ? Yet, unless we assume that it can, 

 the whole discussion is either meaningless, or else 

 assumes the truth of some such theory as ' Pangene- 

 sis.' In other words, as it must be ' unthinkable ' 

 that force should act independently of matter, the 

 doctrine of its persistence can only be made to bear 

 upon the question of heredity, by supposing that 

 there is a material connection between corporeal and 

 germinal cells — i.e. by granting the existence of 

 force-carriers, call them gemmules, or physiological 

 units, or what we please. 



Lawson Tait says (p. 60) — ' The process of growth 

 of the ovum after impregnation can be followed only 

 after the assumption either expressed or unconsciously 

 accepted of such a hypothesis as is contained in Mr. 

 Darwin's "Pangenesis;"' and it is interesting, as 

 showing the truth of the remark, to compare, for ex- 



