From G. J. Romanes 21 June 1878
18 Cornwall Terrace:
June 21, 1878.
I am of course very glad to hear that you have no objection to letting me have the benefit of consulting your notes.1
Most observers are in a frantic hurry to publish their work, but what you say about your own feelings seems to me very characteristic. Like the bees, you ought to have some one to take the honey, when you make it to give to the world—not, however, that I want to play the part of a thieving wasp.2 I will send you my manuscript about instinct (or the proofs when out), and you can strike out anything that you would rather publish yourself.
I shall not be able to begin my book till after the jelly-fish season is over.3 This will be in September or October; but I will let you know when I want to read up about instinct.
With very many thanks, I remain, yours very sincerely and most respectfully, | Geo. J. Romanes.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Natural selection: Charles Darwin’s Natural selection: being the second part of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1975.
Romanes, George John. 1879. Concluding observations on the locomotor system of medusae. [Read 16 January 1879.] Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 171 (1880): 161–202.
Romanes, George John. 1882a. Animal intelligence. International Scientific Series, vol. 41. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co.
Romanes, George John. 1883a. Mental evolution in animals: with a posthumous essay on instinct by Charles Darwin. London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.
Summary
Thanks for permission to use CD’s MS chapter on instinct for forthcoming book.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11561
- From
- George John Romanes
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- London, Cornwall Terrace, 18
- Source of text
- E. D. Romanes 1896, p. 73
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11561,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11561.xml
