From J. D. Hooker 20 August 1881
Royal Gardens Kew
Aug 20/81.
Dear Darwin
Just a few last words, before I commit my vaporings to the public.1
Of all the followers of Latreille in the mutability of species did any one of them use this in explanation of representative species in very distant localities?2 See end Von Baer, as you point out, was convinced by the facts of Geog. distribution that all Species were descended from one parent form, & I suppose must have been led to this by the phenomena of representation— Can you tell me if this was so? I have no time to consult the Zoog. & Anthrop. Untersuch.n.3
I find that Dana was the first (of all I have yet found,) who broached the doctrine of permanence of position of existing continents.4 You somewhere do the same for existing Oceans, & I read it lately, but for the life of me cannot turn the passage up. Also in the origin you imply this.5 But I do not know of any one except Wallace who has summed up all the arguments for it; & marshalled them with convincing force6
I know Blytt’s paper & had it, & thought at the time very highly of it, & my opinion is strengthened by reperusal. I give a sketch of it as the last advance towards a knowledge of the laws of Geograph. Distribn..7 I shall return your copy soon with thanks.
Ever yrs | J D Hooker.
P.S. What I want to know if any one ever suggested that the representation for an instance of an Azorean plant by a Canarian was due to their having a common parent the offspring of which diverged generally from the parent type but converged in those localities, either through both varying in the same direction or by one varying in the direction of the other.
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Baer, Karl Ernst von. 1859. Über Papuas und Alfuren. Ein Commentar zu den beiden ersten Abschnitten der Abhandlung ‘Crania Selecta ex Thesauris Anthropologicus Academiae Imperialis Petropolitanae.’ Mémoires de l’Académie impériale des sciences naturelles de Saint-Pétersbourg 6th ser. 8: 269–346.
Blytt, Axel. 1876. Essay on the immigration of the Norwegian flora during alternating rainy and dry periods. Christiania: Albert Cammermeyer.
Hooker, Joseph Dalton. 1881. On geographical distribution. Presidential address, section E, geography. [Read 1 September 1881.] Report of the 51st Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held at York, Transactions of the sections, pp. 727–38.
Wagner, Rudolph. 1861b. Zoologisch-anthropologische Untersuchungen, I. Göttingen: Dieterichschen Buchhandlung.
Wallace, Alfred Russel. 1880a. Island life: or, the phenomena and causes of insular faunas and floras, including a revision and attempted solution of the problem of geological climates. London: Macmillan.
Summary
Is making final preparations for his address [at York BAAS meeting] and questions CD on specific points.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13291
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Kew
- Source of text
- DAR 104: 162–3
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13291,” accessed on 1 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13291.xml