1893 ARTICLES ON WEISMANNISM 323 



March 19. 



I have got Weismann's new book, ' The Germ- 

 Plasm.' It is a much more finished performance 

 than the ' Essays.' In fact, he has evidently been 

 consulting botanists, reading up English literature 

 on the subject, so he has anticipated nearly all the 

 points of my long criticisms. This is a nuisance. 



Per contra, since coming here I have heard of no 

 less than three additional cases of cats which have 

 lost their tails afterwards having tailless kittens. I 

 wish to goodness I had been more energetic in get- 

 ting on with my experiments about this, so I have 

 written to John to get me twelve kittens to meet me 

 on my return. It would be a grand thing to knock 

 down W.'s whole edifice with a cat's tail. 



The monotony of life here is becoming intolerable. 

 There is nothing to write about. 



You will have seen that Taine is dead. I was 

 just about to write to him, to ask if he would be the 

 Eomanes lecturer. 



March 21. 



Here is an odd thing. I find that Weismann in 

 his new book has discussed all the points raised by 

 Spencer. So Spencer and I have been hammering 

 away at things which W. has already written upon. 

 Luckily, he says about what I anticipated he would 

 say (see my article), but how absurd a fiasco ! I 

 have written a postscript to go by the mail, hoping 

 it may arrive in time to be bound up as a separate 

 slip before the issue of April number, explaining that 



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