To Richard Owen 25 November [1846]1
Down Farnborough Kent
Nov. 25th
My dear Owen
Having worked out pretty carefully my new articulated Balanus (to be call Arthrobalanus) I have become so much interested in the structure of the sessile Cirripedes, that I am dissecting 5 or 6 of the other genera. I work out mouths & cirri carefully, muscular structure & tunics of the sack, & a some of the structure of the viscera; whether this is worth doing I am not sure, but I have not forgotten your great kindness in acceding to my request of reading over this time my descriptions.— I have, however, strayed from my object, which was to ask, whether you could by any chance supply me with a few specimens in Spirits of any of the Sessile genera, for my specimens are all small & some immature. If the College had any large set of specimens, of any of the genera, perhaps it would be possible to let me have a few; I could return the parts, after having them drawn, preserved & dissected in Spirits
Pray excuse this trouble | Ever yours truly | C. Darwin
P.S. | Most, perhaps all of the shells, about which I more than once tormented you, I have found at Sowerby’s.—2 proh pudor on me.
Footnotes
Summary
Asks to borrow specimens of sessile cirripedes from Museum of Royal College of Surgeons.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1033
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Richard Owen
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Natural History Museum (Gen. lib. Owen collect. 9: 201)
- Physical description
- 4pp & C
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1033,” accessed on 19 February 2019, http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/DCP-LETT-1033
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 3