To Richard Owen 17 July [1852]1
Down Farnborough Kent
July 17th.
Dear Owen
I will forward by this post the correspondence to Capt. Nelson.2 I have told him that an abstract will certainly (as I presume) appear which I hope will in some degree satisfy him.—
I cannot tell you how much gratified I am at what you say about the Cirripedia. I really feel rewarded for more labour than you would readily believe it possible could have been bestowed on the work. I have, however, made a mess of it for I got so frightened at the thoughts of all the sessile species, that I have not illustrated & given in nearly detail enough my anatomical work, which is the only part of the work which has really interested me.3 I find the mere systematic part infinitely tedious. I can, however, honestly state that all that I have said on the males of Ibla & Scalpellum is the result of the most careful & repeated observations.4 If I am ever proved wrong in it, I shall be surprised.5 But my pen is running away with me,—it is your fault for I have been so much pleased with what you say.
Making out the homologies of the shell & external parts of Cirripedes,6 as I fully believe correctly, (and I am glad to say that Dana admits the view)7 gave me great satisfaction— But I must not bore you with my triumph—
I have been very seldom in London for the last year, when I was last there, I called at the College to see you, but you were just gone out.8
Pray believe me in a great state of triump, pride vanity, conceit &c &c &c
Yours sincerely | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Dana, James Dwight. 1846. Notice of some genera of Coclopacea. American Journal of Science and Arts 2d ser. 1: 225–30.
DNB: Dictionary of national biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. 63 vols. and 2 supplements (6 vols.). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1912. Dictionary of national biography 1912–90. Edited by H. W. C. Davis et al. 9 vols. London: Oxford University Press. 1927–96.
Living Cirripedia (1851): A monograph of the sub-class Cirripedia, with figures of all the species. The Lepadidæ; or, pedunculated cirripedes. By Charles Darwin. London: Ray Society. 1851.
Milne-Edwards, Henri. 1834–40. Histoire naturelle des crustacés, comprenant l’anatomie, la physiologie et la classification de ces animaux. 4 vols. Paris: Librairie encyclopédique de Roret.
Summary
Gratified by what RO says about his book [Living Cirripedia, vol. 1 (1851)]. The anatomical work is the only part he is really interested in; finds the "mere systematic part infinitely tedious"; but will be surprised if he is ever proved wrong on the males of Ibla and Scalpellum.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1484
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Richard Owen
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Natural History Museum, Library and Archives (General Special Collections Owen correspondence 9/188)
- Physical description
- ALS 6pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1484,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1484.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 5