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From Paolo Mantegazza1   19 March 1868

Pavie (Italie)

19 Mars 1868.

Monsieur,

Je suis tout occupé à lire votre grand ouvrage: The variations of animals and plants under domestication; un monument sublime de l’intelligence humaine.2 Soyez beni au nom de la science, au nom des admirateurs de la nature!— Le livre va marquer une grande epoque dans l’histoire des sciences naturelles.

Dans le second volume (pag 369) j’ai eu le plaisir de voir cité un de mes travaux sur la greffe animale; mais vous vous êtes rapporté à le Popular Science Review, où on a décrit mes experiences avec peu d’exactitude.— L’ergot du coq n’a pas été greffé dans l’oeil d’un beuf, mais dans une oreille (cela se fait souvent dans le Bresil); et après huit ans il ne pesait pas 306, mais 396 grammes.3

Je vous envoie mon ouvrage original sur la greffe; vous trouverez dessiné l’ergot à la Table 3e et décrit à pag. 51.4

Vous pourrez voir aussi comment le testicule et la râte peuvent vivre indefinement transporté, d’un organisme à l’autre.

Je vous envoie aussi un extrait d’un travail sur les mariages consanguines; et aussitôt qu’il sera publié, je vous enverrai le memoire tout entier. Vous verrez quel cas je fais de vos immortelles decouvertes.5

Dans peu de jours vous recevrez aussi mes voyages dans le Plata, le Paraguay et les Isles Canaries.6 Je dois couper mon ouvrage en plusieurs morceaux, car à la poste on ne peut pas l’envoyer tout entier.—

Je marquerai en crayon rouge ce qui peut vous interesser pour vos études sur les races etc.7

Je prends la liberté de vous envoyez ma portrait;8 au moins en ombre je veux entrer dans votre sanctuaire où vous reformez la science, où vous ouvrez des horizons sans bornes à la meditation et à la philosophie de l’avenir.

Serais je assez hardi de vous prier de m’envoyer le votre? Je serais le plus heureux des hommes.

Ecrivez moi en anglais: je le comprend très bien, mais je ne puis pas l’écrire.

Pardonnez moi et croyez moi | Votre admirateur | Dr Paul Mantegazza | Professor de pathologie à l’Université | de Pavie et Deputé à la Chambre.

CD annotations

Top of letter: ‘Send my Photograph’ pencil

Footnotes

1
For a translation of this letter, see Correspondence vol. 16, Appendix I.
2
The reference is to Variation.
3
CD quoted from a brief summary of Mantegazza’s results that appeared in Popular Science Review (see Variation 2: 369); the error about the location of the transplant occurred in the summary, but CD had made the error about the weight of the graft (Popular Science Review 4(1865): 522).
4
Mantegazza refers to his study, Degli innesti animali e della produzione artificiale delle cellule (Mantegazza 1865). It has not been found in the Darwin Libraries at CUL or Down, but in Variation 2d ed., 2: 365, CD cited Mantegazza 1865, p. 51, table 3.
5
The work was titled ‘Studii sui matrimonii consanguinei’. CD’s copies of the extract (Mantegazza 1868a) and the full work (Mantegazza 1868b) are in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL. For Mantegazza’s references to CD, see Mantegazza 1868b, pp. 9, 11.
6
Mantegazza refers to his book, Rio de la Plata e Tenerife (Mantegazza 1867). CD’s annotated copy is in the Darwin Library–CUL (see Marginalia 1: 563–5).
7
For a list of all the marginal scoring in CD’s copy of Mantegazza 1867, most of which is in red, see Marginalia 1: 563–4.
8
Mantegazza’s photograph has not been found in the Darwin Archive–CUL.

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

Mantegazza, Paolo. 1865. Degli innesti animali e della produzione artificiale delle cellule. Milan.

Marginalia: Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990.

Variation 2d ed.: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1875.

Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.

Translation

From Paolo Mantegazza1   19 March 1868

Pavia (Italy)

19 March 1868

Sir,

I am wholly occupied in reading your great work: The variations of animals and plants under domestication; a sublime monument to human intelligence.2 May you be blessed in the name of science, in the name of lovers of nature! The book will mark a great epoch in the history of the natural sciences.

In the second volume (pag. 369) I had the pleasure of seeing one of my studies of animal grafting cited; but you referred to Popular Science Review, where my experiments were described with little accuracy.— The cockspur was not grafted into the eye of a bull, but into an ear (as is often done in Brazil), and after eight years it weighed not 306 but 396 grammes.3

I am sending you my original work on grafting; you will find the spur depicted in Table 3 and described on page 51.4

You will also see how the testicle and the spleen were able to survive indefinitely when transported from one organism to the other.

I am also sending you an extract from a work on consanguineous marriages, and as soon as it is published, I will send you the complete memoir. You will see what my opinion is of your immortal discoveries.5

In a few days you will also receive my travels in La Plata, Paraguay, and the Canary Islands.6 I will have to divide my work into several pieces because it cannot be sent as a whole through the post.—

I will mark in red pencil what might interest you for your studies of races etc.7

I take the liberty of sending you my portrait;8 at least as a shade I want to enter the sanctuary in which you are reforming science, where you are opening up unlimited horizons for meditation and for the philosophy of the future.

Should I be bold enough to ask you to send me yours? I should be the happiest of men.

Write to me in English. I understand it very well, but cannot write it.

Pardon me and believe me | Your admirer | Dr Paul Mantegazza | Professor of Pathology | at the University of Pavia and Deputy of the Chamber.

Footnotes

1
For a transcription of this letter in its original French, see part I: 281.
2
The reference is to Variation.
3
CD quoted from a brief summary of Mantegazza’s results that appeared in Popular Science Review (see Variation 2: 369); the error about the location of the transplant occurred in the summary, but CD had made the error about the weight of the graft (Popular Science Review 4(1865): 522).
4
Mantegazza refers to his study, Degli innesti animali e della produzione artificiale delle cellule (Mantegazza 1865). It has not been found in the Darwin Libraries at CUL or Down, but in Variation 2d ed., 2: 365, CD cited Mantegazza 1865, p. 51, table 3.
5
The work was titled ‘Studii sui matrimonii consanguinei’. CD’s copies of the extract (Mantegazza 1868a) and the full work (Mantegazza 1868b) are in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL. For Mantegazza’s references to CD, see Mantegazza 1868b, pp. 9, 11.
6
Mantegazza refers to his book, Rio de la Plata e Tenerife (Mantegazza 1867). CD’s annotated copy is in the Darwin Library–CUL (see Marginalia 1: 563–5).
7
For a list of all the marginal scoring in CD’s copy of Mantegazza 1867, most of which is in red, see Marginalia 1: 563–4.
8
Mantegazza’s photograph has not been found in the Darwin Archive–CUL.

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

Mantegazza, Paolo. 1865. Degli innesti animali e della produzione artificiale delle cellule. Milan.

Marginalia: Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990.

Variation 2d ed.: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1875.

Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.

Summary

Sends papers.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-6025
From
Paolo Mantegazza
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Pavia
Source of text
DAR 171: 36
Physical description
ALS 2pp † (French)

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6025,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6025.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16

letter

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