1S90 FLASHING LIGHT ON PLANTS 223 



where I could get the requisite apparatus, and there 

 they shut up at night. 



Of course, I will withdraw this paper, and, if you 

 think the thing is worth working out in all the details 

 you suggest, will do so. In that case, it would be 

 worth while to ascertain whether there would be any 

 electrical apparatus at Cambridge which I could get 

 the use of at a lower rate of profit to the owners. A 

 good-sized induction coil is really all that is required, 

 and they probably have this in the Cavendish. But 

 there is not one available in any of the London work- 

 shops, and so I had to go to Appes, in the Strand. It 

 is suggested that the debate in Section D at the 

 British Association this year should be opened by me 

 on the question of utility as universal. Before I agree, 

 I should like to know what you think about the 

 ' Nature ' controversy which I have recently had with 

 Dyer, and out of which the present suggestion has 

 emanated. Perhaps we might arrange to meet some- 

 where soon to have a talk over the expediency of 

 such a debate at all, and the lines on which, if held, it 

 should run. Of course, physiological selection would 

 be carefully kept out. My object would be to show 

 the prime importance of natural selection as a theory 

 which everywhere accounts for adaptations. 



Yours very sincerely, 



Gr. J. EOMANES. 



May 27, 1889. 



Herewith I return, with many thanks, a pamphlet 

 by Kerner, numbered 738. 



In my experiments with electric spark illumina- 



