Patrick Geddes an Ernst Haeckel, Dundee, 19. Mai [1884]
University College
Dundee
19 May.
Dear Prof. Haeckel
Herewith you have [a] copy of our programme for August Courses in Science, held in Edinburgh annually. This began simply as a school of biology, but is now expanding rapidly, & includes several educational reforms – which I may indeed largely describe || as attempts to bring into our academic practice ideas which you have long upheld – notably the unity of biological & social sciences, & the connection of science with art.
We hear from John Murray that you are likely to be in Edinburgh in August, & so I write to || ask you, if you will honour and favour us by taking part in our course of General Biology, so far as to deliver one, two, or more lectures? My friend Henry de Varigny will be with us as well as Grosse, Haddon & of course Arthur Thomson, perhaps also James Geikie may lecture.
There are always about 30 or 40 students at these courses, but this year || we hope for more, as the attempt is becoming better known – but these students are the best we see throughout the year, & so I can safely promise your audience will be an appreciative one –
I need not say also how much pleasure it would give us to have your presence & approval in a system of teaching to which you have done so much to encourage us. And in this state of examination of the Scottish Universities, it would also be of real use to have your voice in our midst. Believe me, always yours most faithfully
PGeddes –