228 GEOEGE JOHN EOMANES 1881- 



good deal of evidence as to the possibility of a graft- 

 hybrid. As regards animals, fifteen years ago I spent 

 an immensity of time in experimenting, and could not 

 then find that there was any literature on the subject. 

 Nobody who had grafted animal tissues had done so 

 with any reference to the heredity question, nor 

 do I know of any publications on the subject since 

 then. 



Yours very truly. 



G. J. Romanes. 



Geanies, Ross-shire, N.B. : November 11, 1889. 



My dear Poulton, — Although I spent niore time 

 and trouble than I like to acknowledge (even to my- 

 self) in trying to prove Pangenesis between '73 and 

 '80, I never obtained any positive results, and did 

 not care to publish negative. Therefore there are no 

 papers of mine on the subject, although I may fairly 

 believe that no other human being has tried so many 

 experiments upon it. No doubt you will think that 

 I ought to regard this fact as so much negative evi- 

 dence in favour of the new theory ; and, up to a 

 certain point, I do, only the issue between Pangenesis 

 and Germ-plasm is not really or nearly so well defined 

 as Weismann represents, where the matter of experi- 

 ments is concerned ; e.g. it is not the case that any 

 crucial test is furnished by the non-transmissibility of 

 mutilations ; Darwin did not set much store by them, 

 though Eimer and others have done so since. In 

 fact all the Germans on both sides, and all the 

 Englishmen on Weismann's side, seem to me unjust 

 to Darwin in this respect. 



