The Life and Letters of George John Romanes

Abstract

THE life of most men of science is uneventful so far as the rest of the world is concerned, and can hardly interest more than the circle of personal friends. And the letters of men of science also have, as a rule, but a limited interest. Any scientific information which they contain has usually been published elsewhere, and if of importance, is already familiar to the scientific reader. The account of the life, and the selection of the letters of George Romanes, which is here presented, offer in some measure an exception to the general rule, for they contain matters which will keenly interest others than those who may desire to follow merely the scientific career of the man. But it is the scientific correspondence which will, without doubt, be that which will chiefly interest the readers of NATURE, and it is this, therefore, with which alone we propose here to deal. And of the scientific correspondence, that which Romanes carried on with Charles Darwin during a period of nine years would alone furnish enough interest to ensure a cordial welcome to this work. For Mrs. Romanes has not confined herself, as is so often done by the biographer, to presenting only the one side of a correspondence, but has wisely decided in this and certain other instances to allow both sides to appear, far more than doubling thereby its value and interest. And since, with one exception, none of these letters of Darwin have hitherto been given to the world, and moreover he seems in them to have opened up his heart with the frankest confidence to the young devotee whose powers of thought he was one of the first to recognise, it is obvious that this correspondence must have an altogether exceptional interest. It deals mainly, as might be supposed, with subjects bearing on the question of inheritance, and especially with Darwin's hypothesis of Pangenesis. In attempts to prove this theory, Romanes devoted an immense amount of time in patient experimentation, but as the experiments yielded for the most part a negative result, showing neither for nor against the hypothesis, they were never systematically published. On this account the descriptions of some of these experiments, which are here given at length, will be welcomed by those who may be carrying on similar work in the future. The subject was one upon which Romanes was “keen” to the very last, and almost the latest experiments which he planned, had a direct bearing upon the doctrine in question. And even when his time was fully occupied with the fascinating experiments upon Medusae, by which he first found fame as a scientific inquirer, he was able to devote attention to the carrying out of laborious work on this subject. In July 1875, he writes to Darwin:

The Life and Letters of George John Romanes.

Written and edited by his Wife. Pp. viii + 360. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1896.)