102 GEOEGE JOHN EOMANES lsso- 



much more quickly than I can — am now engaged 

 upon all the French books on animal intelligence 

 which you kindly lent me. I am also preparing for 

 my Eoyal Institution lecture on the 7th of May. I 

 will afterwards publish it in some of the magazines, 

 and, last of all, in an expanded and more detailed 

 form, it will go into my book on Animal Intelligence. 



I went to see the other day on Spiritualism. 



He answered privately a letter that I wrote to 

 'Nature,' signed 'F.B.S.,' which was a feeler for 

 some material to investigate. I had never spoken 



to before, but although I passed a very 



pleasant afternoon with him, I did not learn any- 

 thing new about Spiritualism. He seemed to me to 

 have the faculty of deglutition too well developed. 

 Thus, for instance, he seemed rather queer on the 

 subject of astrology ! and when I asked whether he 

 thought it worthy of common sense to imagine that, 

 spirits or no spirits, the conjunctions of planets could 

 exercise any causative influence on the destinies of 

 children born under them, he answered that having 

 already ' swallowed so much,' he did not know where 

 to stop ! ! 



My wife and baby are both flourishing. I noticed 

 that the latter, at four days old, could always tell 

 which hand I touched, inclining its head towards 

 that hand. 



From G. Darwin to G. J. 'Romanes. 



September 14, 1880. 



We send you our best thanks for your magnificent 

 present of game. I have not tasted black-game for 



