Geo. J. Romanes.
94 St. Aldate's, Oxford: September 26, 1893.
My dear Dyer,—This is one of my bad days, and I have just exhausted my little store of energy by answering a kind letter from Huxley. So please excuse brevity, as I cannot leave your highly appreciated benevolence without an immediate response.
I am much concerned to hear what you say about yourself, and it makes me doubly desirous of seeing you. On Monday next I am to try to go to town for the purpose of consulting doctors. But any day before that we should be truly glad if you could come as you so kindly propose. Possibly I might be able to drive out to Kew on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, should you find it impracticable to run down here before then. But I fluctuate so much from day to day that I cannot make any engagements.
Most fully do I agree with all that you say regarding criticism. And, especially from yourself, I have never met with any but the fairest. Even the spice of it was never bitter, or such as could injure the gustatory nerves of the most thin-skinned of men. I have, indeed, often wondered how you and —— and —— can have so persistently misunderstood my ideas, seeing that neither on the Continent nor in America has there been any difficulty in making myself intelligible. But this, of course, is quite another matter.
As regards Weismannism, I do not include under this term the question of the inheritance of acquired characters. That has been a question for me since the publication of Galton's 'theory of heredity' in 1875. Indeed, even before that, everybody knew the contrast between congenital and acquired characters in respect of heritability; and you may remember, the first time we met you gave me a lot of good advice regarding my experiments on this subject.
Please remember both of us very kindly to your wife when you write to her, and with our united best wishes to yourself,
Believe me, ever yours sincerely,
G. J. Romanes.
To Francis Darwin, Esq.