8 GEOEGE JOHN EOMANES 1870- 



of any particular ability, any likelihood of future dis- 

 tinction. 1 Some slight chance, as it seemed, turned 

 his attention to natural science ; one or two friends 

 were reading for the Natural Science Tripos, and 

 George Romanes ceased to read mathematics and 

 began to work at natural science, competing for and 

 winning a scholarship in that subject. 



Eighteen months only remained for him to work 

 for his Tripos, and it is not surprising that he only 

 obtained a Second Class. In the Tripos of 1870, in 

 the same list among the First-Class men, Mr. Francis 

 Darwin's name appears. 



Mr. Romanes had gone but a little distance along 

 the road on which he was destined to travel very far. 

 He had up to this time read none of Mr. Darwin's 

 books, and to a question on Natural Selection which 

 occurred in the Tripos papers he could give no answer. 



By this time he had abandoned the idea of Holy 

 Orders, perhaps on account of the opposition at 

 home, perhaps because of the first beginnings of the 

 intellectual struggles of doubt and of bewilderment. 

 He began to study medicine, and made a lifelong 

 friendship with Dr. Latham, the well-known Cam- 

 bridge physician, of whose kindness Mr. Romanes 

 often spoke, and to whom he dedicated his first book, 

 which was the Burney Prize for 1873. But he also 

 began to study physiology under the direction of Dr. 

 Michael Foster, the present Professor of Physiology at 

 Cambridge, to whom she owes her famous medical 

 school, at that time in its very early beginnings. 



Science entirely fascinated him ; his first plunge 



1 Mr. Cautley writes : ' I have never seen Eomanes, under the greatest 

 provocation, out of temper. Always gentle, always kind, never over- 

 bearing . . . never forgetful of friends.' 



