skip to content

Darwin Correspondence Project

From T. H. Huxley   16 April 1874

4 Marlborough Place | NW

April 16 1874

My dear Darwin—

Put my contribution into the smallest type admissible for it will be read by none but anatomists; and never mind where it goes—1

I am glad you agree with me about the hand & foot and skull question2 As Ward said of Mills opinions—you can only account for the view of Messrs. Aeby Lucae & Co on the supposition of “grave personal sin’ on his part—3

I had a letter from Dohrn a day or two ago in which he tells me he has written to you4

I suspect he has been very ill—

Let us know when you are in Town | & believe me | Ever Yours very faithfully | T. H. Huxley

Footnotes

CD’s letter to Huxley has not been found; see, however, the letter from T. H. Huxley, 14 April 1874 and n. 2. There is no discussion of the hands and feet of humans and apes in Huxley’s note in Descent 2d ed., pp. 199–206.
Huxley refers to Christian Aeby and Johann Lucae (see letter from T. H. Huxley, 14 April 1874 and n. 2), and quotes William George Ward’s remark that John Stuart Mill’s irreligion was ‘due to grave personal sin on his part’ (Ward 1874, p. 9).

Bibliography

Descent 2d ed.: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. London: John Murray. 1874.

Ward, William George. 1874. Mr. Mill’s philosophical position. Dublin Review 22: 1–38.

Summary

His note on the brain should be in small type.

Glad CD agrees with him on hand, foot, and skull question.

Has heard from Dohrn.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-9413
From
Thomas Henry Huxley
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
London, Marlborough Place
Source of text
DAR 166: 333
Physical description
ALS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9413,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9413.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22

letter