To G. J. Romanes 27 December 1874
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Dec 27th 1874
Dear Mr Romanes
I am glad that you are pleased with Hooker’s letter.1 He is the best & kindest man I have ever known. With respect to your experiment I should think grafting the ears of rabbits would be almost impossible, as it would be so difficult to keep the animal quiet afterwards. I do not speak of the pain as of course you would do it under chloroform. The comb of the fowl, especially of the Spanish breed is strongly inherited & would be thus well fitted for your work; & I suppose birds can be chloroformed2
Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Galton, Francis. 1871. Experiments in pangenesis, by breeding from rabbits of a pure variety, into whose circulation blood taken from other varieties had previously been largely transfused. [Read 30 March 1871.] Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 19 (1870–1): 393–410.
Summary
Discourages grafting ears of rabbits. Suggests comb of fowl.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9783
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- George John Romanes
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.457)
- Physical description
- LS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9783,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9783.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22
