1890 PEOEESSOE WEISMANN'S THEOEY 243 



cover common ground. It is needless to add that I 

 am very glad to note you think so well of physiolo- 

 gical selection. 



Yours very truly, 



G. J. Romanes. 



The theory of the Non-Inheritance of Acquired 

 Characters, with which Professor Weismann's name 

 is inseparably connected, was now coming to the front. 



Mr. Eomanes was, of course, intensely interested, 

 and set himself not to dispute so much as to examine 

 and to test it. 



He devoted a large part of his last year at the 

 Boyal Institution to lecturing on Prof. Weismann's 

 theory, which lectures he worked up into his book, 

 'An Examination of Weismannism,' published in 

 1892. 



He devised many experiments to test that theory, 

 experiments which have a pathetic interest for those 

 who love him, for they occupied his mind up to the 

 very day of his death. 



Of this theory it may safely be said that since the 

 promulgation of Mr. Darwin's great doctrine, no pro- 

 blem has interested the world of science so profoundly. 



For the most part the younger English naturalists 

 have accepted Professor Weismann's theory, which, 

 by the way, had long ago been anticipated by Mr. 

 Francis Galton, and Mr. Romanes was not much 

 supported in his opposition, or, rather, his non- 

 adherence to Weismannism. 



Linnean Society, Burlington House, London, W.: March 21, 1890. 



My dear Dyer, — I have come to the conclusion 

 that anything published in ' Nature ' might as well 



