244 GEORGE JOHN EOMANES 1888- 



never have been published at all ; and therefore have 

 come here to-day in order to look through the back 

 numbers of ' Nature,' with a view to repubhshing as a 

 small book the various things that I have contributed 

 during the past twenty years. Thus it is I find that 

 the explanation which I gave to Herbert Spencer re 

 Panmixia and his articles on the ' Factors of Organic 

 Evolution,' appeared in August 25, 1887, and showed 

 that his whole argument was in the air. 



I have also read my own article on Panmixia, 

 written about two months ago, and published last 

 week. The result is to satisfy me that your ' intelli- 

 gent ' friends must have had minds which do not 

 belong to the a priori order — i.e. are incapable of 

 perceiving other than the most familiar relations. 

 Such minds may do admirable work in other direc- 

 tions, but not in that of estimating the value of 

 Darwinian speculations. A few years ago they 

 would have thought the cessation of selection a very 

 unimportant principle, and one which could not 

 possibly sustain any such large question as that of 

 the transmissibility of acquired character. And a 

 few years hence they will wonder why they raised 

 such an ado over the no less obvious principle of 

 physiological selection. 



Yours very truly, 



Gr. J. EOMANES. 



He writes to his brother : 



18 Cornwall Terrace, Regent's Park, N.W. : Sunday. 



My dearest James, — This theory, of the Non- 

 Inheritance of Acquired Characters, is that nothing 



